China's intense online surveillance doesn't just affect Chinese Internet users and their ability to access information freely. As more and more western entities engage with the country, operating under the Chinese regime's censorship can be costly.
[Danny O'Brien, International Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation]:
"The first is that in order to do that kind of censorship, you'll also need to be able to see everything that travels online. You need to be able to tap into it and see what people are talking about. That means very strong encryption, very strong protective codes that businesses like financial institutions or large companies use as a matter of practice to protect their internal communication are seen as problematic."
Danny O'Brien, a long-time activist for online free speech and privacy, says there are also other risks. Just to stay away from murky censorship laws, western companies sometimes have to compromise.
[Danny O'Brien, International Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation]:
"There's also pressure on companies, Internet companies to exercise a degree of self-censorship, to self-discipline their own services, so when they see something they know may raise red flags amongst the leadership, they'll delete those messages, or block those accounts. So that definitely slow down, or block what we know as the free flow of opinion and information online."
China has become a popular destination for western companies, hoping to capitalize on its lucrative market. But that investment doesn't always pay off, as in the case of search-engine giant, Google.
[Danny O'Brien, International Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation]:
"Companies like Google have been hit by this in China. Google is a reasonably good service, it's popular elsewhere, it's comparable to a local service like Baidu. But Google has, throughout its history in China, has gone down, been blocked and interfered with and that just has the effect of people not wanting to use it anymore."
Google was forced to pull out of the Chinese search-engine market in 2010, after it refused to comply with Chinese censorship laws.
In 2011, the US filed a WTO ruling against China, to find out how the Chinese regime's blocking of certain websites is creating trade barriers for US businesses.
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