Google Stops Censoring Chinese Search, Closes Google.cn

On January 12 Google announced that they, and more than twenty other U.S. companies had been the victims of a sophisticated cyber attack originating from China, and also uncovered evidence to suggest that the Gmail accounts of dozens of human rights activists connected with China were being routinely accessed. These attacks 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— led Google to conclude that they could no longer continue censoring search results on Google.cn.

On March 23 Google announced they had stopped censoring their services—Google Search, Google News, and Google Images—on Google.cn. Users visiting Google.cn are now being redirected to Google’s Hong Kong servers, Google.com.hk, with uncensored search in simplified Chinese, specifically designed for users in mainland China.

Andrew Lih, USC Annenberg Journalism professor and director of new media, suggests that Google’s repudiation of censorship in China has touched a nerve in the country.

The fact that Google has stopped voluntarily censoring search results in China doesn’t mean that access to blocked content will become easier there. Queries sent to Hong Kong about sensitive political subjects are now being blocked by the so-called Great Firewall of China rather than stripped from search results lists by Google.

But Lih believes this may make censorship more apparent to Chinese Internet users and may prompt more interest in the issue among people who might otherwise be content to remain apolitical. “You’re going to have great number of folks who are going to run up right against the Great Firewall,” he said, “and people are going to start asking questions.”

The Chinese government reacted by declaring that Google had broken the promise it made when it began operating in the country.

“Google has violated its written promise it made when entering the Chinese market by stopping filtering its searching service and blaming China in insinuation for alleged hacker attacks,” said an unnamed government official with China’s State Council Information Office in a report published by the state-run Xinhua news service. “This is totally wrong. We’re uncompromisingly opposed to the politicization of commercial issues, and express our discontent and indignation to Google for its unreasonable accusations and conducts.”

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment on China’s strongly worded response to its actions.