Google to stop censoring Google China
Rodney 18 comments Poll
Google has announced it will no longer continue to filter search results on the Chinese version of their search engine, as a result of what they claim to be sustained and sophisticated cyber-attacks on their infrastructure, from the Chinese government. Google acknowledge that this may result in the cessation of their entire Chinese operations and say they are willing to take this risk.
The official Google blog states that they have seen a continued and "highly sophisticated"series of attacks, resulting in the theft of their Intellectual Property, originating from Chinese sources and believe that the goal of these attacks has been to allow the Chinese government to track human rights activists, who criticise the communist regime.
"...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..."
Google also indicated that they have evidence that at least 20 other large corporations have been targeted and are pursuing the situation with US authorities.
Google claims that it has evidence that, outside of attempted security breaches, the gmail accounts of dozens of known Chineses human rights activists have been illegally viewed, not through security failing at Google but through more traditional means, such as social engineering and installation of malware on their personal computers.
In keeping with Google's mantra of "Do No Evil", they say they can no longer conscionably provide the Chinese government with a filtered search engine and assist China in burying human rights.
"...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 recognise that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China..."
Google's blog entry on the issue is a very measured and well written article and well worth the read.
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Update: China has told Google that they either cooperate or get out.
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Marvin the Martian
Thursday 14th January 2010 | 12:51 PMIt's nice to see any corporation making a stand against tyrrany and sticking to their core principals. I for one will keep searching with them (:))
Papa
Thursday 14th January 2010 | 12:55 PMNice they stop playing the "Ministry of Truth" role... Good for Google...
Rodney
Thursday 14th January 2010 | 01:18 PMChina has basically told Google to pull into line or get out. We'll follow to see how it plays out.
http://www.news.com.au/business/breaking-news/cooperate-or-leave-china-tells-internet-companies/story-e6frfkur-1225819253176
Joe Marco
Thursday 14th January 2010 | 01:48 PMThis is like a slap to the face and a kick in the nuts to China. I think I will name my first child 'Google' to forever commerate the day 'Google' said to China, "I've had enough of your bullsh@t! no more soup for you!"
Rodney
Thursday 14th January 2010 | 02:24 PMA little more news to hand. Another company targeted was Adobe and the method used to gain access to the intellectual property appears to have been an 0 day exploit in Adobe Reader. Targeted users at the corporations were emailed a malicious PDF attachment, which allowed the attackers to gain their foothold.
...in response to this comment by Rodney. This story just keeps getting better. I wonder how deep the rabbit hole goes?
Rodney
Thursday 14th January 2010 | 02:46 PM...in response to this comment by Mikey. 33 companies and counting...
Mini Mel
Thursday 14th January 2010 | 02:58 PM...in response to this comment by Rodney. makes you wonder who'll be china's new sock-puppet in the search engine world?
...in response to this comment by Mini Mel. Bing! I bet Steve Balmer is already looking for a way to open negotiations with China :-)
MS are good at giving people the shaft, so a few human rights violations here and there won't matter to much to them :-P
Rodney
Thursday 14th January 2010 | 03:37 PM...in response to this comment by Mini Mel. Baidu (http://www.baidu.com/)
They already had the largest market share of the search engine market in China, anyway (slightly higher than Google). And they're state owned, so they will definitely tow the line.
PC World reckons Google is bluffing:
Early reports suggest Chinese internet users are siding with Google:
Rodney
Thursday 14th January 2010 | 07:50 PMAnd they're not lying!
After years of being censored, "tank man" is now visible in Google China's search results.
...in response to this comment by Rodney. That's astonishing.
...in response to this comment by Rodney. No kidding:
Non-censorship FTW!
Rodney
Thursday 14th January 2010 | 08:43 PM...in response to this comment by Mikey. It's beautiful to see, isn't it?
Mind you, if I worked for Google China, after the Stern Hu of Rio Tinto incident, I'd be getting the next flight out of the country.
...in response to this comment by Rodney. Yes it is.
Mikey
Thursday 14th January 2010 | 11:49 AMAmazing. It's good to see the big G has a conscience after all, even if their do no evil mantra wasn't always followed. That said I was amazing they would even offer a filtered service to China in the first place. What Google essentially gave China was a propaganda machine, not a search engine.