China More Powerful Than the EU

As far as internet behemoth Google is concerned, China is more powerful than the EU:

Google, the giant internet search company, is to lead industry opposition to new proposals from the European Commission to regulate online content.

The company, which last week said it would self-censor its Chinese search engine to appease the country's government, objects to the commission's proposals to extend regulations in the Television Without Frontiers directive (TWFD) to cover video content shown on the internet...

Last week Google was criticised for bowing to pressure from Beijing to stop Chinese citizens using the company's new google.cn portal to search for websites that refer to Tibetan independence, the Tiananmen Square massacre and the banned Falun Gong organisation. An executive with links to Google, whose motto is "Don't be evil", said yesterday: "Better to allow Chinese citizens to access 99 per cent of information on the web than nothing at all."

The country runs a sophisticated system of internet control, known as "The Great Firewall of China", which blocks access to Western sites.

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