Google has stopped censoring its search results in China, ignoring warnings by the country's authorities.
The US company said its Chinese users would be redirected to the uncensored pages of its Hong Kong website.
In January, Google had complained about a "sophisticated cyber attack originating from China".
Chinese government officials had warned Google repeatedly that it would face consequences if it did not comply with the country's censorship rules.
In a blog post, the company said the Chinese government had been "crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement".
Google's chief legal officer, David Drummond, said that providing "uncensored search" from Google.com.hk was "a sensible solution to the challenges we've faced—it's entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China".
It said there might be some service slowdowns and delays in getting search results while it beefs up resources to handle the re-directed queries.
"We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision, though we are well aware that it could at any time block access to our services," Mr Drummond wrote in the blog post.
He wrote that Google would carefully monitor access and provide regular updates via a dedicated page to show what was available via its services in mainland China.
One cause of the row was Google's revelation on 12 January that it, and more than 20 other companies had been the victim of a cyber attack that originated inside China.
During the attack Google lost some intellectual property and discovered that the attack was aimed at the GMail accounts of human rights activists. This attack led Google to "review the feasibility" of its Chinese operations.
In the blog entry posted on 22 March, Google said it would maintain an R&D and sales presence in China. It said the size of its sales team would depend on how many Chinese people can get at the Hong Kong based site. Currently about 700 of Google's 20,000 strong workforce are based in China.
On Sunday, state media in China had attacked Google for what they described as the company's "intricate ties" with the US government.
Google provided US intelligence agencies with a record of its search engine results, the state-run news agency Xinhua said.
While Google is the world's most popular search engine, it is a distant number two in the Chinese market, which is dominated by Baidu.
However, because of the size and growth rate of China's internet population, any loss of business there is likely to harm Google's future growth prospects.
Analysts said that initially Google's prospects would not be dented by shutting down Google.cn as it is responsible, at most, for 2% of its annual $24bn (£15.9bn) revenue.
"Near-term, not that big a deal," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer at Solaris Asset Management. "Long-term, if this stays in place, it's a negative. China is certainly a great growth opportunity."
It is well-known that China operates one of the most sophisticated and wide-reaching censorship systems in the world.
Thousands of police officers are employed to monitor web activity and many automated systems watch blogs, chat rooms and other sites to ensure that banned subjects, such as Tiananmen Square, are not discussed.
Good for Google, they went and did the right thing when it was far from certain that they would. The Chinese government will probably punish them for it, though.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Google is playing a game here, and it could either end well for the general population of China, or poorly for Google.
Make no mistake though, this is a clear case of a corporation using its influence to try and forcibly change the laws of a nation.
I give Google credit for it, but the Chinese government clearly believes it needs these restrictions as a life or death matter. I predict Google getting bounced on it's ass.
"it takes two sides to end a war but only one to start one. And those who do not have swords may still die upon them." Tolken
Hotfoot wrote:Make no mistake though, this is a clear case of a corporation using its influence to try and forcibly change the laws of a nation.
China does not enforce the rule of law in a uniform manner, and its government does not obey its own laws. US businesses, to say nothing of individuals both Chinese or American are routinely denied the protection of law in China at the whim of arbitrary authorities and statist monopolies. If China won't play fair with its own corporate and contract law, it's idiotic to expect Google to do so.
This leaving aside the fact that the laws in question are immoral and designed to prop up the dictatorial power of arbitrary plutocrats and destroy the possibility of dissent.
Frigid is correct that Google will likely be thrown on its ass for this, but frankly, that was likely to happen anyway. Good on Google for finally realizing this.
Gaze upon my works, ye mighty, and despair...
Havoc: "So basically if you side against him, he summons Cthulu."
Hotfoot: "Yes, which is reasonable."
frigidmagi wrote:The Chinese Government will likely throw them out of China.
Google has, or is in the process of, removed their employees from the country. Not having anybody on the ground makes it relatively painless to be thrown out. And they only had a ~35% market share in China anyway; a stinging loss but not as bad as in the western world.
Never shall innocent blood be shed, yet the blood of the wicked shall flow like a river.
The three shall spread their blackened wings and be the vengeful striking hammer of god.
Cpl Kendall wrote:So umm, forgive the ignorance of a guy who turned in his computer knowledge when he retired but how does this work?
Does China block them from the servers in the country or something?
Yup. The Great Firewall of China isn't just a joke. They'll take down any in-country servers that are up and filter Google completely from the country, including things like googleads, I'm betting.
