Google.cn now uncensored, Chinese government expresses disgust

 

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Posted on 23 Mar 2010 at 11:09

Google has announced that it is now no longer censoring search results on its Chinese portal, Google.cn, and has started redirecting Chinese users to its Hong Kong servers. The Chinese government said that Google's move is "totally wrong" and that it "violated its written promise".

In January, Google said that it will shut down its Chinese operations following the cyber attack on it and more than twenty other US companies, saying that it would only operate in China if its search engine didn't have to be censored in accordance with Chinese law.

The reason behind the stance was that, during its investigation, Google found that the Google Mail accounts of known Chinese human rights activists were being routinely accessed by third parties, "most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on their computers."

Another justification behind its decision was that the Chinese government has continued to limit free speech on the web "with the persistent blocking of websites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Docs and Blogger".

China's top internet Minister, Li Yi Zhong, responded last week by saying that China needed "to preserve our nation's interest [and] our people's interest" and "cannot be relaxed with any information that will cause harm to the stability of our society, to our system, and to the health of our under-age young people."

Redirected

Google said that users visiting Google.cn to use Google Search, Google News and Google Images will now be redirected to Google.com.hk, where search is uncensored in simplified Chinese, which has been "specifically designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong". The firm added that users in Hong Kong will continue to receive the uncensored traditional Chinese service on Google.com.hk.

"Due to the increased load on our Hong Kong servers and the complicated nature of these changes, users may see some slowdown in service or find some products temporarily inaccessible as we switch everything over," read a Google statement.

"Figuring out how to make good on our promise to stop censoring search on Google.cn has been hard. We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement," the statement continued. "We believe this new approach to providing uncensored search in simplified Chinese from Google.com.hk is a sensible solution to the challenges we've faced - it's entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China."

Google hopes that the Chinese government will respect its decision and it will be interesting to see how long the Chinese government allows its people to access Google.cn in its uncensored state. Google has set up a new web page which it says it will update "regularly each day" so that "everyone can see which Google services are available in China."