Google Stops Censorship, Making Block by China Likely
By Brian Womack
March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc., following through on a pledge to stop censoring search results in China, began serving mainland Chinese users via its unfiltered Hong Kong site, a move that could prompt the government to block the service.
The company began redirecting traffic from its Google.cn site to Hong Kong, a part of the country that isn???t subject to censorship laws. The move, which escalates a two- month dispute with the government over censorship, was ???totally wrong,??? the official Xinhua news agency said.
By relying on Hong Kong, Google is trying to find a way to fight censorship laws while still keeping a presence in mainland China. The approach may not work for long because the government will probably block the site, called Google.com.hk, just as it has before with the main Google.com page, said Ben Schachter, an analyst at Broadpoint AmTech Inc. in San Francisco.
???It???s very likely that Google.com.hk will be blocked at least as aggressively as Google.com was and, more likely, probably more aggressively,??? he said.
The company challenged the government of the world???s most populous country in January by threatening to allow all search results to be shown on its China Web site, including references to Tibet and the Tiananmen Square crackdown. Google has about 600 employees in the country. Google.cn included the search engine, Google News and Google Images.
???Crystal Clear???
???The Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement,??? Google said in a blog post. ???We believe this new approach of 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 fell $2.50 to $557.50 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have declined 10 percent this year.
By dropping the censorship of its site, the company broke an agreement it made with the government when it entered the market, according to China???s State Council Information Office, Xinhua reported.
The Obama administration is ???disappointed??? that Google couldn???t reach an agreement with the Chinese government to keep operating Google.cn, said Mike Hammer, a spokesman for the National Security Council. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has backed Google in the dispute, prompting the Chinese government to say the conflict damaged relations between the countries.
Opposing Censorship
???We have previously raised our concerns about this issue directly with the Chinese government,??? Hammer said. ???As both President Obama and Secretary Clinton have stressed on several occasions, we are committed to Internet freedom and are opposed to censorship.???
Hong Kong has a separate government and economy -- a legacy of its role as a British territory until 1997. At the time of the handover, China promised to preserve Hong Kong???s capitalist system and free press for an additional 50 years.
The Hong Kong approach forces the Chinese government to take the next step, said Jason Helfstein, an analyst with Oppenheimer & Co. in New York.
???They???re putting the ball back in the Chinese government???s court,??? said Helfstein, who rates the stock ???outperform??? and doesn???t own it. The government could entirely block Google???s service or redirect users to rival Baidu Inc., which leads the Chinese search market.
Cyber Attacks
Google, the world???s top search engine, threatened to stop censoring content after reporting that its computers had been hacked from within China. The company said its systems were targeted by ???highly sophisticated??? attacks aimed at obtaining proprietary information, as well as personal data belonging to human-rights activists who use the company???s Gmail e-mail service.
The Chinese government denied that it was involved in the attacks, Xinhua reported.
At least 20 other international companies in technology, finance and chemicals were similarly targeted, Google said at the time.
???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 Web sites 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,??? Google said on the blog.
By Brian Womack
March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc., following through on a pledge to stop censoring search results in China, began serving mainland Chinese users via its unfiltered Hong Kong site, a move that could prompt the government to block the service.
The company began redirecting traffic from its Google.cn site to Hong Kong, a part of the country that isn???t subject to censorship laws. The move, which escalates a two- month dispute with the government over censorship, was ???totally wrong,??? the official Xinhua news agency said.
By relying on Hong Kong, Google is trying to find a way to fight censorship laws while still keeping a presence in mainland China. The approach may not work for long because the government will probably block the site, called Google.com.hk, just as it has before with the main Google.com page, said Ben Schachter, an analyst at Broadpoint AmTech Inc. in San Francisco.
???It???s very likely that Google.com.hk will be blocked at least as aggressively as Google.com was and, more likely, probably more aggressively,??? he said.
The company challenged the government of the world???s most populous country in January by threatening to allow all search results to be shown on its China Web site, including references to Tibet and the Tiananmen Square crackdown. Google has about 600 employees in the country. Google.cn included the search engine, Google News and Google Images.
???Crystal Clear???
???The Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement,??? Google said in a blog post. ???We believe this new approach of 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 fell $2.50 to $557.50 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The shares have declined 10 percent this year.
By dropping the censorship of its site, the company broke an agreement it made with the government when it entered the market, according to China???s State Council Information Office, Xinhua reported.
The Obama administration is ???disappointed??? that Google couldn???t reach an agreement with the Chinese government to keep operating Google.cn, said Mike Hammer, a spokesman for the National Security Council. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has backed Google in the dispute, prompting the Chinese government to say the conflict damaged relations between the countries.
Opposing Censorship
???We have previously raised our concerns about this issue directly with the Chinese government,??? Hammer said. ???As both President Obama and Secretary Clinton have stressed on several occasions, we are committed to Internet freedom and are opposed to censorship.???
Hong Kong has a separate government and economy -- a legacy of its role as a British territory until 1997. At the time of the handover, China promised to preserve Hong Kong???s capitalist system and free press for an additional 50 years.
The Hong Kong approach forces the Chinese government to take the next step, said Jason Helfstein, an analyst with Oppenheimer & Co. in New York.
???They???re putting the ball back in the Chinese government???s court,??? said Helfstein, who rates the stock ???outperform??? and doesn???t own it. The government could entirely block Google???s service or redirect users to rival Baidu Inc., which leads the Chinese search market.
Cyber Attacks
Google, the world???s top search engine, threatened to stop censoring content after reporting that its computers had been hacked from within China. The company said its systems were targeted by ???highly sophisticated??? attacks aimed at obtaining proprietary information, as well as personal data belonging to human-rights activists who use the company???s Gmail e-mail service.
The Chinese government denied that it was involved in the attacks, Xinhua reported.
At least 20 other international companies in technology, finance and chemicals were similarly targeted, Google said at the time.
???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 Web sites 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,??? Google said on the blog.
