ResourceBlog Article: Google Will Stop Censoring Results on Google.cn, Might Be Forced to Leave Chinese Market

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Tuesday, 12th January 2010

Google Will Stop Censoring Results on Google.cn, Might Be Forced to Leave Chinese Market

This morning we said a meeting between Google and a group of Chinese authors was canceled this might be the reason why.

During mid-December, Google "detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google."

Google was NOT the only company that was part of the attack. It involved a range of businesses in many industries.

From the Google Blog:

Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. 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.

Third, as part of this investigation but independent of the attack on Google, we have discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties.

The blog post goes on to provide more detail, suggested readings, and Google's philosophy about operating in China. It includes this:

We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people in China and a more open Internet outweighed our discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. At the time we made clear that "we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China."

[Snip]

We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.

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