Google On China: Yeah, So Apparently The Gov't Doesn't Like Us Redirecting All Traffic To Hong Kong

from the shocker dept

Tue, Jun 29th 2010 2:26am — Mike Masnick

This can't really come as a surprise, but it appears that Google's plan to redirect all traffic from China to its Hong Kong site, in response to China's censorship... and hack attack isn't making China very happy. The country has apparently threatened to take away Google's Internet Content Provider license... so, now it appears that Google is taking a step back into China in an attempt to keep the license. Google's argument (effectively the same one it had when it first went into China despite concerns about censorship there) is that having some access in China is better than no access for people there:

Without an ICP license, we can't operate a commercial website like Google.cn--so Google would effectively go dark in China.

That's a prospect dreaded by many of our Chinese users, who have been vocal about their desire to keep Google.cn alive. We have therefore been looking at possible alternatives, and instead of automatically redirecting all our users, we have started taking a small percentage of them to a landing page on Google.cn that links to Google.com.hk--where users can conduct web search or continue to use Google.cn services like music and text translate, which we can provide locally without filtering. This approach ensures we stay true to our commitment not to censor our results on Google.cn and gives users access to all of our services from one page.

Over the next few days we'll end the redirect entirely, taking all our Chinese users to our new landing page--and today we re-submitted our ICP license renewal application based on this approach.

I'm not sure this will actually satisfy the Chinese government, or do Google much good either. It seems like taking a bit of a step backwards after insisting that it would stay out of China if China continued to require it to censor results.

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Filed Under: censorship, china, filters
Companies: google

15 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jun 2010 @ 3:54am

It is better to be a part of a corrupt system and make money than to not take part at all and make no money at all.
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abc gum, 29 Jun 2010 @ 4:50am

Will China stop its hack attacks upon Google?
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Radjin, 29 Jun 2010 @ 5:10am

It's about money not not being evil
Google is not about helping people, it's about money. It was pretty oblivious that they will do anything to stay in China, a huge market; even backtrack on there strong words not to censor. They just thought they were strong enough to push China.
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- mkam (profile), 29 Jun 2010 @ 5:16am
  
  Re: It's about money not not being evil
  Trolling much?
  
  Yep Google makes money. Did you mean obvious or 'oblivious' that Google would do anything to stay in China? What are they censoring? Did you RTFA? They are keeping the services that they don't have to censor (in China) and pushing the rest to the Hong Kong servers. Are you making a point or just arguing out of your nether regions?
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- Stuart, 29 Jun 2010 @ 7:00am
  
  Re: It's about money not not being evil
  Umm. Actually Google in my experience has always tried to make money and make it product (You and Me) happy.
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bob, 29 Jun 2010 @ 5:19am

don't be evil
Now that Google is a public company and investors want to make money. Google will go back to China the way the Chinese Govt wants them to.
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Jimr (profile), 29 Jun 2010 @ 6:01am

I think Google has started to clean up and patch security holes. I suspect Google sufficient confident to step back into a market where the government will do all that it can to steal their Google's knowledge and pass it to its own Government Owned endeavors (and search engines).

The big thing is Google now knows that China is going to be a security game and they will have to do their due diligence on security when working with China.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jun 2010 @ 6:02am

Attacking someone on flip flopping might be a sound attack against a politician... but against a corporation out to make money it seems kind of off. (somehow I feel someone will call me a troll for this or attack me for this comment... meh)

It does seem that Google is making an effort to push the envelope here. It may just amount to a token effort but they are not just rolling over like many companies do and will do to get even a slice of China.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Jun 2010 @ 6:40am

as previously discussed, google figured it out fast: china can live without google, but google suffers greatly without china. quite simply, google is not willing to stand on principal and let both the fastest expanding and the potentially largest internet marketplace slip away from them.

so once again, google is willing to do a little more evil for the bottom line. welcome to the slippery slope.
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- Anonymous Coward, 29 Jun 2010 @ 8:45am
  
  Re:
  so mike, would you care to admit you were wrong on this one?
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  - Mike Masnick (profile), 29 Jun 2010 @ 9:36am
    
    Re: Re:
    so mike, would you care to admit you were wrong on this one?
    
    Wrong how? I never suggested that I believe Google's rationale here or that it would truly stay out of China. In fact, I suggested in my post that there was a lot more going on behind the scenes. So, which part did I get "wrong"?
    
    I had no real opinion on whether or not Google would actually stay out or not.
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newsjunkie, 29 Jun 2010 @ 7:47am

What is the status of http://www.google.com in China?
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- Jim O (profile), 29 Jun 2010 @ 9:59am
  
  Re:
  About 4 months ago it was an auto redirect to google.cn
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DNE, 29 Jun 2010 @ 10:29am

Do No Evil...
... to a public company means "do nothing to reduce profits". That's just good old capitalism, so what's the problem?
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mhenriday (profile), 30 Jun 2010 @ 12:06pm

Shaun Rein has posted
a perceptive - dare I say wise ? - commentary on this issue over at Forbes (http://preview.tinyurl.com/2vbqw8u )....
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