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Breaking Point: China Begins Blocking Google Searches

by Terrence O'Brien on March 23, 2010 at 12:45 PM

China Begins Partially Blocking Google Searches
Well, we knew that wouldn't take long. Following Google's decision to end its tacit censorship of Chinese search results, the Chinese government called the search company's decision "totally wrong," and, within hours, began blocking sites and filtering out search results it found objectionable. China hasn't yet blocked Google.com.hk, the uncensored site to which Google has begun forwarding Chinese searchers, but its effectiveness is severely hampered with so many search results blocked.

The government might still move towards completely blocking access to Google.com.hk, but doing so would not only hurt Google and the people of China, but the government as well. Reuters reported that citizens of Beijing had turned the sign outside of that city's Google offices into an impromptu memorial -- leaving flowers and chocolates in front of it. Additionally, the most loyal of Chinese Google users tend to be the more vocal and educated members of society, and they could prove difficult to control if access were completely removed.

There has already been fallout. According to the New York Times, China's largest mobile phone provider (China Mobile) is expected to cancel a mobile-search deal with Google. Meanwhile, China Unicom (the second largest provider) has killed a plan to launch a phone using the mobile Android operating system. Other Google services are still available, though, and China relies heavily on its advertising services to market Chinese companies around the globe. It remains to be seen how much further the relationship between the two will break down. [From: New York Times, via: Engadget]

Tags: business, censorship, china, google, googleinchina, GoogleVsChina, politics, top, web

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