Kathmandu – As lovers celebrated Valentine’s day worldwide on Tuesday, Internet hunk Google lost hundreds of sweethearts who broke off with the web search engine in outrage over the censoring of information related to Tibet to placate China.
Over 2,000 people from all over the world joined the Google boycott campaign launched by Students for a Free Tibet (SFT), a rights organisation based in New York that does not accept Beijing’s annexation of Tibet.
SFT has created a new web site, www.NoLuv4Google.com, asking people to boycott Google on Valentine’s Day and express their anger with Google at the new site.
The anger was triggered after Google launched a new web search engine obeying Chinese specifications that blocks access to and distorts information about Tibet, human rights and other topics sensitive to Beijing.
Google’s gesture comes after its rivals Yahoo! and Microsoft cooperated with the Chinese authorities.
Last year, to the outrage of pro-Tibet Internet users, Yahoo! provided information that helped jail a Chinese dissident for 10 years and this year, Microsoft shut down a Chinese political blogger’s site for “not complying with local law”.
“Break up with Google this Valentine’s Day,” the SFT urged. “Have you heard about Google and the Chinese government?! They’re SO going steady. We know it’s all about the money though. Why else would Google betray us all and start spreading China’s lies?”
“We urge all Tibetans to pledge a one-day boycott of Google at www.NoLuv4Google.com and show the giant search engine that their partnership with the Chinese government is unforgivably irresponsible and evil.”
“It hasn’t been easy but we’re strong and we’re moving on,” said Lhadon Tethong, executive director of Students for a Free Tibet (SFT). “For five years, I had a meaningful relationship with Google but now they’ve betrayed me. They’ve betrayed all of us and now we’re saying: it’s either us or the Chinese government.”
“It’s been the classic five stages for me, except backwards.” said Han-shan, an action coordinator with SFT. “It started with acceptance that they were just like any other greedy corporation. Now I’m kind of stuck in shock and outrage. Google, I can’t believe you let the Chinese government change you. It’s like I don’t even know you anymore.”
SFT’s web site includes a section with “Google Breakup Stories”.
There, Tsering Lam, a Tibetan based in Vancouver, Canada, has written: “Dear Google, if you think the Chinese Communist Party (we call them “CCP” for short) will be a good friend, take it from a Tibetan, you’re gravely mistaken. You’ll soon find them to be a fickle partner at best.”
Another angry Tibetan from Toronto, Tenzin Dhonyoe, wrote to Google: “You have been my default homepage and my trusted friend. I was forever proud of your slogan ‘do no evil’. But your recent act of selfishness and callousness makes me sick. We are through. I know there are lots of fish in the sea. I am going to start with altavista.com so hasta-la-vista baby.”
SFT is also coordinating protests at Google’s offices worldwide on Valentine’s Day, Feb 14, to help channel users’ emotions and, according to the organisers, “to provide closure”.
