Censored Google damned if it does

Stan Beer
Thursday, 08 June 2006 17:22

Your IT - Home IT

Global media watchdog, Reporters without Borders has directed harsh criticism at search engine leader Google for its acquiesence to the Chinese Government, which the media organisation indicates has stifled the free flow of information in China.

In January this year, Google launched a special censored version of its search engine for the Chinese market at Google.cn. The censored version filters out words which are not approved by the Chinese regime.

Prior to the launch of the Chinese language Google.cn, most Chinese web surfers were able to access Google.com, which had been freely accessible since 2002 due to international pressure on the Chinese Government. However, since the launch of Google.cn, recent reports say the Government has once again blocked access to Google.com.

Google co-founder Sergey Brin originally defended the company's decision to enter China with a censored version of its search engine in an interview with Reuters in January, saying words to the effect that some information is better than none. Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, went further in an interview with Associated Press, unashamedly defending the company's actions saying: "I think it's arrogant for us to walk into a country where we are just beginning to operate and tell that country how to operate."

The decision was attacked by human rights and freedom of information organisations such as Amnesty International and Electronic Frontiers Foundation. This week Brin told Reuters that only 1% of Chinese users accessed Google.cn with the rest going to Google.com.

However, if the reports of the difficulty accessing Google.com within China are correct, then 99% of Chinese looking for freely accessible information are no longer visiting Google at all. Reporters Without Borders place the blame squarely at Google's feet claimiing that the launch of Google.cn had emboldened the Chinese Government to reinstate the bar on accessing the global Google site.

Google, however, is far being the only company that appears to have compromised western values of freedom of information in order to gain access to the lucrative Chinese market. Both Microsoft and Yahoo have been the recipients of similar criticism from human rights groups in recent times. Yahoo has been accused of helping the Chinese authorities track down dissidents, while Microsoft has reportedly self-censored a blog.