Much had been made of the sweeping changes to China’s economy, but the country may be about to undergo another shift—this time, in the way information is disseminated. On Jan. 12, Google published what has now become a famous manifesto, “A New Approach to China.” Essentially, Google has said that it will no longer censor itself.
For those not familiar with this issue, here’s the gist. Google first came to China in January 2006 under the condition that it would censor the things the Chinese government told it to. Last year, Google supplemented its regular search tool with the “associated word” feature—the innovation where someone typing in a search query can see what other people who used similar wording have searched for. (For example, when you start typing in “car” it suggests “cars for sale” or “career paths” or “cartoons.”) Needless to say, the Chinese authorities were furious because this allowed Chinese searchers to see queries that were previously censored to them. In June, Chinese officials blocked this feature on Google, using the excuse that it encouraged people to view pornography.
Additionally, a few weeks ago Google announced that it knew of sophisticated cyber attacks in mid-December that targeted as many as 34 of the top Fortune 500 companies, including companies in the Internet, finance, technology, media, and chemical sectors, such as Dow Chemical Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. Google broke the news that the Gmail accounts of two human rights activists were broken into. Although it’s not clear exactly who the hackers were, evidence suggests it was done with sophisticated organization. Later, Google discovered a command and control server sending hacking instructions from China. Granted, it’s difficult to say whether the hackers were operating and manipulating computers in China or elsewhere, but nonetheless, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked the Chinese government for an explanation.
It is with this background that David Drummond, Google’s Chief Legal Officer, posted “A New Approach to China” on the official Google blog. He wrote that Google publicized its findings because these attacks are not just an Internet security issue, but they go right “to the heart of a much bigger global debate about freedom of speech.” Google entered China believing that the limited content it provided was more beneficial than the censorship it had to abide by. But now, Google has said it is no longer willing to continue censoring its results, and declared its intention to operate an unfiltered search engine within the law.”
Chinese citizens who can outsmart the censors have organized a flower campaign using Twitter, which is banned in China, with slogans such as “GoogleBye.” They have been sending flowers and cards with messages to Google offices in China, thanking the company for its courage to say no to censorship.
The Chinese authorities have said little in response, trying to downplay the issue, even though this is arguably the most egregious insult to the government from a company. What they have said is that Google is masking a business decision in moral language. Google had only a 20-30 per cent market share of Chinese Internet searches, putting it in second place behind the Chinese search engine Baidu, which holds 60-70 per cent of the market. The government scorned Google for threatening to withdraw, claiming that the country is too lucrative to abandon, and that Google would soon return on its hands and knees, complying with the government’s censors.
Although Google made $22 million in China in 2008, this was only a small percentage of its total profits. Google would lose much more advertisement revenue if only a small minority of users in North America or Europe boycotted it because they thought Google was betraying its principles in China.
Even though China is a large market, Google will likely not be returning, as their announcement has soured relations with the powers that be. If Google did stay, China would punish the company with harder restrictions and more filters. If it withdraws, Google abandons millions of Chinese users. More to the point, leaving China would not stop the cyber attacks and theft of intellectual property.
Indeed, Google’s competitors are eager to see it go. Baidu will probably gain more users from Google’s departure. Yahoo originally aligned itself with Google in defence of Internet privacy and against the cyber attacks, but has since been criticized by its partner in China, the Alibaba Group, of which Yahoo owns 40 per cent. Microsoft made no mention of being disturbed by the news, and hopes to gain users for its new Bing interest search engine.
Although Google denies having made a decision about its future in China and is currently trying to negotiate a compromise with China, which would allow Google to offer unfiltered searches within the Chinese law, rumours have spread that the company is already leaving.
In the last few days, Google has loosened its filters. It still blocks what it must, but has allowed searchers to see images of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest, which embarrasses the Communist regime. What will happen is hard to say, but an article in PC Magazine sums up the situation nicely: “Google’s purpose is to search and find. The Chinese Government’s purpose is to control and hide. Somebody has to change.”
