Google To Stay In China
Image courtesy fivepointblog.com
After much speculation, threats and words traded, it has been confirmed – Google To Stay In China.
Google today advised via a post on the official Google blog that Google were to stay in China. Ever since Google released a statement on January 19th 2010 informing the world on cyber attacks from China, there has been massive tension in the air between the communist led government and the world’s biggest multinational public cloud computing and Internet search technology company.
Google and more than twenty other U.S. companies had been the victims of a sophisticated cyber attack originating from China, and that during our investigation into these attacks we had uncovered evidence to suggest that the Gmail accounts of dozens of human rights activists connected with China were being routinely accessed by third parties, most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on their computers. We also made clear that these attacks and the surveillance they uncovered—combined with attempts over the last year to further limit free speech on the web in China including the persistent blocking of websites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Docs and Blogger—had led us to conclude that we could no longer continue censoring our results on Google.cn.
Google has for a long-time been battling with China in regards to the strict censorship that the search engine has had to apply to results listed in the country. The latest events pushed the relationship to breaking point.
As of Monday 22nd Google stopped all censoring of search results in China. In their post, Google has stated that it will redirect its Chinese users to its servers in Hong Kong.
So earlier today we stopped censoring our search services—Google Search, Google News, and Google Images—on Google.cn. Users visiting Google.cn are now being redirected to Google.com.hk, where we are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese, specifically designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong. Users in Hong Kong will continue to receive their existing uncensored, traditional Chinese service, also from Google.com.hk
I hear you ask – Isn’t Hong Kong Part of China?
While Hong Kong is part of China, it gained “special administrative region” status after the British ceded control to China in 1999. China is responsible for defense and foreign policy but Hong Kong has its own currency and retains a good deal of economic and political freedom. This may be a a side-step to earlier statements, however this move does allow Google to stay in China.
Hopefully this move brings benefits for the Chinese people and allows them the freedom and access to content that many other nations enjoy.
Checkmate?
Cemil Ozcelik
www.OnlineBusinessBlackbook.com © 2009 - 2010
If you like this post, you might also like:
If you found this page useful, why not use the social media buttons above to add it on your favorite social sites and also
subscribe to the RSS feed for more interesting posts from Online Business Blackbook.
Also Check Us Out On Facebook and
Twitter
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Interesting read Cemil. I read somewhere that China may still have the right to block the HK site altogether.
Great to see Google making such a bold move but it’ll be interesting to see what effect it may have on future business prospects for them in China
Hi Colin,
It seems to be a never ending saga. China may still take action to enforce it’s policy one way or another. But by Google taking this action they are essentially keeping one foot in the door as China is a massive market and Google are not one to let that go so easily.