Google is no longer willing to continue censoring search results on Google.cn after proof of v. Recent cyber attacks on Google and the subsequent investigation has led to the discovery that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties.

What has happened?

This has not happened due to any security breach at Google, but most likely through phishing scams or malware placed on the users’ computers.

These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered have led Google to review the feasibility of their business operations in China: They are no longer willing to continue censoring results on Google.cn.

In the weeks to come Google will discuss with the Chinese government how they could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. On the official Google blog they write:

“We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.”

A brave decision

This is good news indeed! When Google.cn launched three years ago, Pandia and many others worried that the decision to censor search results was a serious breach with Google’s corporate motto “not be evil” and that it would lend legitimacy to the censorship and other human rights violations of the Chinese regime.

But China is a huge and quickly growing market and the temptation at the time was too big for Google. However, it turns out that they were trying to keep the evil to a minimum. In the same blog post quoted above, Google quotes their own blog post (or testemony as they called it) on the launch of Google.cn:

“we will carefully monitor conditions in China, including new laws and other restrictions on our services. If we determine that we are unable to achieve the objectives outlined we will not hesitate to reconsider our approach to China.”

We are happy to see that these words have indeed provided a guideline for Google and that they have taken a decision which will probably cost them a lot of business but sends a very strong signal to the Chinese authorities.

photo credit: Ed-meister