14 Jan
Google in China
So by now I thought the world would have caught up with this massive piece of news. It occurred two days ago and I am still having trouble finding any information about it.
Google smacked China. Basically what happened was Google became aware that it was under highly advanced and targeted attacks against its Gmail section. It was originating from inside China and going after the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Then they got serious and started digging. Finding that dozens of US, European and Chinese Gmail account for activists were being routinely accessed, not through Google’s breach but through each account holders breach. Add in to all this that the attack was not just on Google but on around 20 other large companies this is massive news.
With this Google has been sharing around the information it has gathered so far with other relevant parties.
The upshot of this? When Google first entered into China, opened up offices and started up Google.cn I was impressed. I have lived in China for a while and the greatest problem there, is not the corruption, the systemic caste system of communist party members and non-members. No the greatest problem is knowledge about the world and current events. opening up Google like this could only be a good thing… and then we found out that Google would filter the results. I can see their argument, opening up the internet is a great achievement and paying for it by censoring some results was a small price. however like the rest of the world China is hurriedly going ass-backwards on how the internet should work.
So now Google has flat out said “No, no more. We will not censor results for you. if you don’t like that then we will take our ball and go home.” effectively? Suck it China.
This is amazing, this is wonderful and yet I can’t find much information or coverage on this. The ramifications are huge. If nothing else this should force a light onto China, if Google does pull out then everyone will sit up and pay attention.
As I said the greatest problem in China is the lack of world knowledge, so the greatest threat to the Chinese government is people waking up and paying attention.
Posted by Andrew Carr on 14.01.10 at 4:24 pm
It may not be quite the noble act you’re making it out to be. Google would have known about the risks, and hacks for a while as many other companies have, see this piece: http://tiny.cc/rdBGa
Not necessarily conclusive, and it needn’t be. Most real life decisions have a multiple of reason for them, but given MOST big tech companies have made a Faustian bargains to get into china (news networks, microsoft etc), its nice to see one finally buck the trend.
My initial concern was that this would simply let the Chinese govt close the net tighter, keeping citizens further in the dark, but I have been re-assured by several sources that the effect on information flow is negligible through this move. So good move google, though I don’t think it’s actually that significant other than to Googles shareholders…
Posted by David Longva on 14.01.10 at 4:24 pm
I have to let my inner conspiracy theorist take over a little bit here and say that I suspect that this was googles plan all along. Think about it, had they gone into China and said “Unfiltered internet for all” China would have shut them down in days if not hours. This would have caused a minor stir and then everything would have gone back to normal.
But now, Google has around a 36% market share of China’s search engine industry. There is only 1 search engine bigger in China. Now if they get shut down by China theres going to be a huge backlash from every side. Users within China, external governments are already backing Googles stance.
I just cant help but wonder if they were just sitting there, building up evidence and market share waiting for the right moment to drop the whole lot and make it as hard as possible for the Government to quash them.
Posted by David Klemke on 14.01.10 at 4:24 pm
I’ve got a post up on my blog about this whole thing but if it’s raw information you’re after then Boing Boing has done a good round up of the press and the tech crowd’s reaction to the situation:
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/01/19/google-vs-china-vs-g.html