all 9 comments

[–]zyxzevn 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The spy agency should not respond to any data requests.

[–][deleted] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

You know shit's bad when the company whose whole business is spying is concerned about privacy.

Well, they're not concerned, they're just scared of Trump. If Hillary was in office, I bet Google would be responding to every data request they got, because there wouldn't be the threat of punishment by the President. I don't support Trump, I don't think he's gone far enough, but I'll give credit where it's due.

[–]Trajan 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

Google, for its many faults, had taken similar stances long before Trump was in office. While Trump is the best president in a very long time, he no more did this than he brings the rains.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

With mainland China, not Hong Kong. It's a lot more obvious when you're doing business with the world's largest country than if you're doing business with one city. Companies like Google often use smaller countries like HK to do business with larger ones like China, and the fact that HK is basically part of China now makes it much, much easier for them.

The only other thing that would scare Google into this action would be public pressure, and there's not really much of that anymore — there was, for a time, but not after the Coronavirus and BLM rampages.

[–]Trajan 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

United States President Donald J. Trump declared that the administrative principle of ''One country, Two systems,'' which acted to guide Hong Kong policy as separate from Mainland China, was no longer in affect, and issued Executive Order 13936, which terminated Hong Kong's special trade status with the United States.

[–]Trajan 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Sure, it's related. It's also not been unusual for Google in the past to withdraw business from China even before Trump. Should we give Obama sole credit for Google's earlier move from China to Hong Kong?

I'll give credit where credit is due, and Trump has turned up the heat. However, Google has long had a strained relationship with China.

[–][deleted] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I'll give Obama credit for that.

[–]Trajan 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Fair enough. I wouldn’t. If anything I’d credit the CCP.