Google vs China : self-destruction

The growing power struggle between Google and China over web censorship has taken an interesting turn, with the search giant sticking to its guns and leaving analysts to wonder how the communist power will respond.

No longer willing to continue censoring web results in China, Google announced yesterday that it had shut down Google.cn, the company’s existing search page in the country that had been censored and filtered, as per Chinese law.  Now, Chinese web users are being directed to Google’s Hong Kong search engine, Google.com.hk instead, which is completely uncensored and gives users access to content that the Chinese government historically has deemed off-limits.

To top it off, Google also built and posted an online monitor showing exactly which of the company’s services are currently being blocked or censored by the Chinese government.

A quick review on the matter:  

Google has no desire to operate a search engine in a country that so brazenly restricts access to information with the heavy government hand that China does. The company has had issues with the Chinese government all along, not just because of its oppressive censorship policies, but also because of the alarming volume of cyber attacks and crime that seem to originate from the country without any visible repercussions. Google’s been re-thinking their Chinese strategy for awhile now, tackling the dilemma of how to stay relevant in the world’s most populous country while staying true to their ideals of offering a free and open forum for information.

The Chinese government has a strict policy limiting access to information that it believes will threaten “national security and society’s public interest.”  It has required Google and other tech giants to play but its rules all along, demanding that search engines employ a filter that keeps sensitive information from showing up on search results.

Google.com.hk changes all of that. With Google.cn closed, all Chinese Google users are now being re-directed to the new search page and have access to all the information they want on just about anything.  In other words, it’s exactly the OPPOSITE of what Chinese government allows. Yet Google maintains that moving search traffic to the Hong Kong site is “entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China.”

Although Hong Kong has technically been under Chinese control since 1997, it does enjoy some autonomy from mainland China and typically, personal freedoms are not infringed upon nearly as much in Hong Kong as the rest of the country. As such, it would appear that Google has found a loophole of sorts for continuing to operate in China without succumbing to the country’s censorship demands. For now.

Techdy Bear views :

Google vs China? That's a self-destruction. Google, the search engine giant against the most populated country in this world - China is totally insane. Google going to lose millions of users from China which everyone often regards it as "goldmines", if Google continue with their action. On the other hand, China is a stubborn country and will not knee down to anyone. Standing firmly on web censorship demand. In this case, both Google and China are losers! There will not be a winner.


sources : Google.cn Google.hk