Activists GreatFire Urge Western Companies to End Chinese Censorship

GreatFire, an organisation set up to combat the Great Firewall of China, is hoping to end the hypocrisy of companies and free speech in China. As the activists GreatFire urge Western companies to end Chinese censorship, they blame companies like Apple for their so-called hypocrisy in regards to China’s censorship. As companies such as Apple always reference China when talking about online freedom and battling Western governments.

The hypocrisy claimed by GreatFire, is that most Western companies, even though they stand up for freedom of speech and fight against censorship, they continue to cooperate with the Chinese government. Of course, the manufacturing power China holds, as well as the rise of the middle class which only continues to benefit companies like Apple.

Speaking in a conference in London, one of the cofounder of GreatFire goes on to claim that these companies are not backing up their actions but instead just simply going along with the Chinese government for their own personal monetary gain. Going by the pseudonym Charlie Smith, due to the constant threat of his safety from the Chinese government. But he did go on to praise the efforts of other companies that have taken actions against the controlling censorship imposed by the Chinese government. Companies such as Wikipedia, GitHub and even Google have been commended in taking firm action. Google actually left the country in 2010 over refusing to censor Google search results, ending with Google actually pulling out of mainland China.

But the fight against censorship is a long battle that doesn’t look like it would be ending anytime soon. With China becoming more and more powerful on the economic front, many companies will flock to them for huge gains in manufacturing as well as commerce. This of course means companies have far more to lose if they were to cease business with China, or even simply oppose their position of censorship.

But if you find yourself falling under censorship, wherever you are in the world, there are options for you. By using a VPN you can easily switch your location to that of anywhere else in the world, effectively bypassing censorship altogether and access content as freely as if you were in that country. So if you happen to find yourself in countries like China who heavily control the internet, by signing up to Le VPN you can enjoy the true freedom of the internet, no matter where you are.