Posted by Florian Wardell | 9 comments
Google to censor no more
On late tuesday, Google announced that they will stop censoring search results on Google.cn, and that the decision may lead to the shutting down of all Google offices in China if they can’t come to an agreement with the Chinese government. I applaud Google’s ballsiness.
This is the result of a massive cyber attack, apparently originating from China (some sources say Taiwan), directed at Google’s Gmail systems. Google, in their official blog, stated that the primary objective of the attack was access accounts of human rights activists, but that the attack also targeted other large companies in finance, technology, and media. Apparently, the attack more or less failed: “Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves.“
Google launched their Google.cn search engine in 2006, believing that the benefits of entering the world’s largest market would outweigh the consequences of censorship and freedom of speech limitation. They did, however, make clear that they “will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services”.
The last attack (one of many) led them to the conclusion that the situation wasn’t satisfactory, hence the decision of pressuring the Chinese government.
Will they reach an agreement? Only the next few weeks will tell us, but so far Google’s move seems to benefit China’s interests: According to Reuters, shares of Google fell 1.9 percent in after-hours trading, while shares of Chinese Internet search company Baidu Inc, Google’s main competitor in China, rose 5 percent. It is estimated that 8 to 10 percent of Google’s revenue originate from China.
Google isn’t one of the largest companies in the world by chance, their long lasting internal policies of ethics and user privacy protection are a vital ingredient of their success. People trust Google. By refusing to be a censorship engine, Google is protecting their worldwide image, and on the long term, their interests.
China, on the other hand, should seize this opportunity to show that its approach towards information access, freedom of speech and censorship has matured, and let Google do its job, even behind the great wall.
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Image courtesy: joyoftech
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