Google in China - money over democracy

Fastest growing search engine Google says it will censor its search services in China in order to gain greater access to China's fast-growing market.

It is offering a new site - Google.cn - which it will censor itself to satisfy Beijing's hardline rulers.

Google argued it would be more damaging to pull out of China altogether.

Reporters Without Borders immediately accused Google of hypocrisy for agreeing to deprive Chinese people of the right to information, while espousing what the company says is its "informal" motto of "Don't Be Evil". Read RSF's press statement here.

Law professor John Palfrey at Harvard University's Berkman Center for the Internet and Society says:

"No doubt about it. This is first about money, and second about
democracy. The founders of Google and their officers and directors have no
doubt made a very careful decision that said, 'We need to avail ourselves of
this market, it's the world's greatest emerging market, and we're going to be in
there with our own offering.'"

The new search engine will block out words and phrases the Chinese government deems sensitive. These have usually had to do with such matters as democracy, Taiwan independence, autonomy for Tibet, and the banned Falun Gong spiritual group.

Until now, Google has only censored its news site in China - a practice it began months ago. The new Chinese version of its search engine will go further than that, by not offering the e-mail or blogging services that the company offers in other markets.

Google is not the first US Internet company to cooperate with Chinese censors for the sake of doing business in the country. Yahoo last year provided Chinese authorities with information that led to the arrest of a Chinese journalist, Shi Tao. He was jailed for 10 years.

There are many other countries which have very low tolerance on Internet being used as a tool of democracy. I just hope this Chinese venture will not open the doors for Google and other popular Internet portals to censor the net elsewhere.

For a look into state-backed restrictions on the Internet, see RSF's latest report here.

read my other blog here.