[Infowarrior] - Google to Stop Censoring China Results, May Shut Site

[Richard Forno]

Google to Stop Censoring China Results, May Shut Site (Update2)
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By Brian Womack and Ari Levy

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aAWT7M2BVSks&pos=1#
Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Google Inc., owner of the world’s most popular  
Internet search engine, plans to stop censoring results on its Chinese  
site, Google.cn, a move that may lead to shutting down the service.

The company said it will discuss the plan with Chinese authorities and  
is willing to close the site, according to a blog post today. Google  
also said it has evidence that an attack on its China Web site was  
aimed at accessing Gmail accounts of Chinese human-rights activists.

“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,” the Mountain View, California-based  
company said. “We recognize that this may well mean having to shut  
down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.”

Google has clashed with authorities since it started a censored  
version of its site four years ago in China, which leads the world in  
Internet users. The company said today that attacks on its site and  
surveillance of users prompted it to review its business operations in  
the country. The move signals that Google is hewing closer to its  
“Don’t be evil” motto, said Heath Terry, an analyst at FBR Capital  
Markets.

“This is their way of opening up this important conversation,” said  
Terry, who is in New York. “This is their way of starting to move the  
conversation forward.”

Google is still a “long way away from getting out of China,” Terry  
said. The company can threaten to leave the country because China  
accounts for such a small piece of Google’s sales, he said.

Baidu Gains

Google’s president of its Chinese operations, Kai-Fu Lee, stepped down  
in September. The country’s online search market is dominated by  
Chinese company Baidu Inc.

Google fell $10.48, or 1.8 percent, to $580 in extended trading after  
closing at $590.48 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The shares have dropped  
4.8 percent this year. Baidu’s American Depository Receipts added  
$13.51, or 3.5 percent, to $400 in extended trading.

In investigating the attack on its own site, Google said it discovered  
that at least 20 other large companies in industries such as finance,  
technology, media and chemicals had been similarly targeted. Google  
said it is in the process of notifying those companies and working  
with the “relevant U.S. authorities.”

Gmail Accounts

Dozens of accounts of Gmail users, who are advocates of human rights  
in the U.S., China and Europe, were accessed, most likely through  
“phishing scams or malware placed on the users’ computers,” Google said.

Only two of those accounts appear to have been accessed and the  
information gathered was limited to account information, such as the  
date created and the subject line, not the content of the e-mails,  
Google said.

In June, Google suspended its “suggest” search prompt feature on its  
Chinese site after the local-language service was criticized by the  
government for providing links to pornographic material. China adopted  
“punitive measures” against the company’s international site, Foreign  
Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said on June 25, and the service became  
inaccessible to Chinese Web users for hours.

China has more Internet users than the total population of the U.S.,  
according to the China Internet Network Information Center, a  
government-backed agency that licenses online domain names.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Womack in San Francisco  
at Bwomack1 at bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: January 12, 2010 18:47 EST