Tech Mania

Posted: 23 Mar 2010 05:21 AM PDT

Recently I had posted about the Google-China fiasco, here is some more update on it.In January this year, Google had accused China of hacking its network and spying on dissident Chinese nationals, alleging that the attack was made to to access the Google Mail accounts of certain Chinese human rights activists.

David Drummond, Google’s legal eagle, posted on the Google blog that Google has made good on its assertion in January that it would no longer censor content served to Chinese users.

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.

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.

In the same blog post, the company said that while the Chinese government had been “crystal clear” throughout their discussions that “self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement”, the new method of redirecting to google.com.hk is entirely legal.

However, they warned that there might be slowdowns in service while they make the necessary arrangements for the servers in Hong Kong to handle the additional traffic.

google china 300x282 Google stops censoring China

In a final statement of defiance, Drummond very clearly thumbed his nose at the Chinese governemnt.

We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision, though we are well aware that it could at any time block access to our services.

Internet Gurus have predicted that Google’s finances would not take much of a hit by shutting down Google.cn as it is responsible, at most, for 2% of its annual $24bn revenue. However, investors have been cautioned that if the move stays in place and and the Chinese government takes action, this could very well turn out to be a negative because of Google’s sales presence in the country, not to mention that China has the world’s largest chunk of internet users.So who’s gonna win here !

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