GOOGLE MOVED its China internet search service offshore to Hong Kong yesterday in a bid to provide uncensored search results while still maintaining some busin- ess operations in the country.
Having previously threatened to withdraw its services, Google yesterday begun redirecting internet traffic from mainland China to its servers in Hong Kong.
The internet giant said it will no longer censor its search service on Google.cn. The company, which is the world’s leading search engine, also said it would monitor and publicise any attempts at censorship of the site by the Chinese government.
Users visiting the company’s Chinese site from last night are automatically being redirected to Google.com.hk where they are offered unfiltered search results.
Google said it hoped the Chin- ese government would respect its decision but added that it had created the new web page so as to avoid attempts to block access to services by the authorities.
Google launched its Chinese-language website in 2006 and agreed to comply with local laws requiring censorship.
The decision by Google to re-route its services is not totally unexpected and comes after several months of negotiations with the Chinese authorities. The search giant said in January it had uncovered sophisticated China-based attacks on human rights activists using its Gmail service around the world.
Google said other firms had also been affected and after checks into the attacks, the firm announced it was no longer willing to tolerate censorship on its search engine. Google also threatened to shut its China offices.
‘‘Figuring out how to make good on our promise to stop censoring search on Google.cn has been hard.
‘‘We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement,’’ the company said.
‘‘We believe this new approach of providing uncensored search in simplified Chinese from Google.com.hk is 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 added. – (Additional reporting Reuters)
