This is the opinion of an a US citizen who has family in China. In fact, I just spent a month there visiting. My relatives are missing out on plenty because various US companies will not compromise with the censors.
Rather than have crippled foreign options that are better than what they have now, they get no foreign options at all. The lack of participation from foreign companies encourages the development of domestic companies that are far better at cooperating with censors than foreign companies ever could be. It also decreases the strain on the censors, making censorship even more effective. After all, there is no need to pay people to review foreign language content on YouTube when it is blocked entirely.
Downvote me if you want, but the reality is that refusing to cooperate with censors on things for Chinese IP addresses actually increases censorship. Cooperation does not mean that those cooperating support the censors. However, failure to cooperate does far more to support the censors than cooperation ever could.
I could say more, but I probably have said too much already. Concern for my family in China means that I can never truly speak freely on this topic in public.
I see your point but not how it increases censorship. If this platforms would show up then only because they are heavily censored. So what would change on that front?
The censorship is a blacklist, not a whitelist. You try reviewing all content added to YouTube in realtime and then decide what effect cooperation has on censorship via black listing. Even media companies armed with the DMCA cannot fully censor YouTube via blacklists in the form of DMCA takedown notices. Furthermore, YouTube is just one example.
However, it makes for a fantastic analogy. The MPAA would be thrilled if YouTube and every other video sharing site on the internet would just shut down. That is effectively what the Chinese censors experienced when foreign companies refused to cooperate. That is not just true for videos either, but that is where the MPAA analogy breaks down.
By the way, I had edited my post for clarity before I saw your reply. Your question might have already been answered by my clarifications.
Not sure if you ever used facebook. But to actually see new content you have to use it basically non stop. Otherwise you will only see the "interesting" content from hours ago.
Before someone explains me what the recent switch is. That shit is basically broken since years and should be called "different order"
I have not used facebook. However, my remarks are far more relevant to Google than Facebook. Facebook just happens to be in the same situation WRT Chinese censorship though.
Rather than have crippled foreign options that are better than what they have now, they get no foreign options at all. The lack of participation from foreign companies encourages the development of domestic companies that are far better at cooperating with censors than foreign companies ever could be. It also decreases the strain on the censors, making censorship even more effective. After all, there is no need to pay people to review foreign language content on YouTube when it is blocked entirely.
Downvote me if you want, but the reality is that refusing to cooperate with censors on things for Chinese IP addresses actually increases censorship. Cooperation does not mean that those cooperating support the censors. However, failure to cooperate does far more to support the censors than cooperation ever could.
I could say more, but I probably have said too much already. Concern for my family in China means that I can never truly speak freely on this topic in public.