Now that Google has agreed to block certain Chinese search terms like “e**ality” and “de***racy,” the solution, it seems to me, is to take an entrepreneurial approach to helping the Chinese find work-arounds that will give them access to the information they seek.
So here’s what I propose: let’s look at the list of these forbidden keywords (here) and devise clever euphemisms for them, followed by descriptive definitions that make clear what the new terms denote—the list can be passed around like a chain letter. If enough bloggers posted the list, it will be impossible for google to block every site, and our Chinese brothers and sisters could simply google the new word for China—rutabaga—and find the list (along with the odd root vegetable appreciation blog, but hey, it’s the most obscure-yet-ordinary, hide-it-in-plain-sight word I could come up with on short notice).
Now that Google has agreed to block certain Chinese search terms like “e**ality” and “de***racy,” the solution, it seems to me, is to take an entrepreneurial approach to helping the Chinese find work-arounds that will give them access to the information they seek.
So here’s what I propose: let’s look at the list of these forbidden keywords (here) and devise clever euphemisms for them, followed by descriptive definitions that make clear what the new terms denote—the list can be passed around like a chain letter. If enough bloggers posted the list, it will be impossible for google to block every site, and our Chinese brothers and sisters could simply google the new word for China—rutabaga—and find the list (along with the odd root vegetable appreciation blog, but hey, it’s the most obscure-yet-ordinary, hide-it-in-plain-sight word I could come up with on short notice).