Google agrees self-censorship for Chinese launch

Posted on 25 Jan 2006 at 15:21

Google has sidelined a number of its principles as it launches the Chinese version of its search engine.

Like others before it, Google has capitulated to the Chinese authorities' demand to censor content indexed for Google.cn in return for having servers based locally.

What this means for Google is that it has a level playing field to compete with China's home-grown search engines such as Baidu, as well as Yahoo! and MSN, which have also succumbed to China's demands.

What this means for China's citizens is that using the localised versions of these search engines will keep them safely out of harm's way, filtering out links to web resources associated with Taiwanese independence, the Tiananmen Square massacre, the outlawed Falun Gong movement, and other issues with which the Chinese government is uncomfortable.

In fairness, Google had stood its ground longer than its rivals, but then Google is a company with a set of self-proclaimed principles to which it is bound.

Of the ten things it believes to be true and which Google claims as its philosophy, it numbers 'The need for information crosses all borders', 'Democracy on the web works', and 'You can make money without doing evil' among them.

Now it looks as if the need to do business crosses all borders.

Campaign group Reporters without Borders is unsurprisingly appalled at the launch. 'Google's statements about respecting online privacy are the height of hypocrisy in view of its strategy in China,' it said in a statement. 'Freedom of expression isn't a minor principle that can be pushed aside when dealing with a dictatorship.

'US firms are now bending to the same censorship rules as their Chinese competitors but they continue to justify themselves by saying their presence has a long-term benefit. Yet the Internet in China is becoming more and more isolated from the outside world and freedom of expression there is shrinking. These firms' lofty predictions about the future of a free and limitless Internet conveniently hide their unacceptable moral errors.'

Google has said that it was a choice between providing a Chinese version or no version. It says that users that find access to content blocked through Google will see a notice explaining why. Google has kept the servers for its blogging and email services off mainland China, meaning they do not fall under the same restrictions.

But while US firms are growing increasingly cozy to China, the US government is starting to take a rather dim view of the trend.

Congress is to hold a number of meetings next month to review ways in which it might prevent US companies from working so co-operatively with repressive regimes, whether through a voluntary code of conduct or legislation.

Author: Matt Whipp