Ter acesso ao mercado chinês obriga a escolher: lucros ou liberdade de expressão. Ter os dois não é permitido, tem de escolher. Ou faz a censura que o PCC manda e pode fazer dinheiro. Ou opta por manter a liberdade de expressão e neste caso está ‘out’…
Atento, o “OneZero” (“the front lines of the future, a new Medium publication about tech and science”) denuncia, com provas e todos os elementos de apoio necessários, esta chantagem de Pequim e mostra como “plataformas” e outras “tecnológicas” não têm capacidade para enfrentar a estratégia de guerra de informação (tanto pelos conteúdos como pelos continentes…) desencadeada pelo Estado chinês.
China Is Forcing Tech Companies to Choose Between Profits and Free Speech
Apple and Blizzard have been pulled into a political struggle, and the platforms are part of the playing field. This will be remembered as a week when a lot of American corporations suddenly realized they needed a China policy. The big tech platforms, much as they like to consider themselves neutral, are no exception.
It started in the NBA, where a now-deleted tweet in support of the Hong Kong protests by Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey prompted an outcry from the Chinese government and some awkward backpedaling by league officials. After catching blowback stateside for its efforts to appease China, the league eventually stood up for Morey’s right to speak freely, which in turn triggered Chinese companies to cancel the broadcasts of a pair of upcoming preseason games. China is a key growth market for the NBA, like many American entities, and the league has a streaming deal with Chinese internet giant Tencent, owner of WeChat.
The NBA isn’t a tech company, of course, but the controversy might not have happened without Twitter, which hosted both Morey’s tweet and a pro-China backlash to the tweet that appears to have been largely generated by bots rather than real people. (Twitter is blocked in mainland China, but there is evidence that the Chinese government has used the platform to spread propaganda targeting the Hong Kong protesters in the past.)
Meanwhile, tech analyst Ben Thompson notes in his Stratechery newsletter that the Chinese-owned social network TikTok appears to have begun hiding Houston …..
China Is Forcing Tech Companies to Choose Between Profits and Free Speech
Exclusivo Tornado / IntelNomics
