Google has fallen in with the ranks of other Western companies that have bent their knee to China’s censorship requirements. Google’s main site, Google.com, is still accessible in China, but at a much slower speed than the censored Google.cn site.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin denies that this signifies the beginning of Google’s end in China, saying that “I think it’s perfectly reasonable to…say OK, let’s stand by the principle against censorship and we won’t actually operate there. That’s an alternate path. It’s not the one we’ve chosen to take right now.”
“We sort of committed to try out this path and we are still actually trying to get it to work,” he added.
So, Internet users in China now have a choice when it comes to using Google. They can choose to access the uncensored Google.com at a slower speed due to blocking techniques being put in place by Chinese Internet service providers, or they can opt to search with the faster, but censored Google.cn.
As recently as last week, about 99% of users in China used google.com, though Brin expects that number to change eventually. “If you are a normal Chinese user and you want to use Google, just go to Google.com and you actually won’t get good service,” he said. “Eventually you will go to Google.cn.”
Google.cn censors terms such as “democracy,” “bird flu,” “Mao Zedong,” “What Google censors,” “Hong Kong,” and “ice cream” among others.
Reporters Without Borders lamented this recent event saying, “It was only to be expected that Google.com would be gradually sidelined after the censored version was launched in January. Google has just definitively joined the club of western companies that comply with online censorship in China. It is deplorable that Chinese Internet users are forced to wage a technological war against censorship in order to access banned content.”
“Any trade and commercial cooperation should be carried out within the frameworks of laws. We hope the relevant companies, when undertaking business operations, can abide by Chinese laws and regulations,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao at a news briefing in Beijing on Thursday.
Sources:
http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/09/technology/google.reut/index.htm
http://www.webpronews.com/insiderreports/searchinsider/wpn-49-
20060607GooglecomVanishesFromChina.html
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