Google & China
Asides
Google is taking a new approach to China. This is a big deal, they’re basically implying the Chinese government has been hacking Google accounts to compromise human rights advocates. Interesting the note at the end where they say these decisions and investigations were entirely in the US, it’s almost like they’re trying to protect their employees there.
Google’s official statement doesn’t quite go as far as saying the Chinese government has been hacking their accounts, but it certainly hints at that.
I think Google reviewing its operations in China is good news, and is perhaps part of a wider bid to improve their perceived image. Helping repair lost faith in the ‘do no evil’ policy which is so central to collecting all that data.
Yes I updated the post to say “implies” which is more in line with how I read it.
As a founder of an influential company, what would you have done Matt if WordPress faces similar situation?
We already are blocked and choose not to operate directly in China, there’s an article about it here:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5igVn4hcj6ZNWlawSvzLvgEMkZmkQ
You would need to protect the employees, who knows what “spying” charges China may come up with for them
I’m really excited to see where this is going — Google is essentially taking on the Chinese government. I’m sure that if Google pulls out of China, there are going to be some big repercussions.
It’s also a decission from Google to stay in the “don’t be evil” line… if they continue allowing the Chinese government to censor and manipulate information through them, they are plotting with the government, and thus becoming evil themselves.
I don’t think China will allow Google to free results. And they won’t care too much about the company leaving…
But it will generate a lot of media buzz for sure.
Media buzz OUTSIDE of China. Major media in China are not reporting this news as is… Xinhua Net is reporting that Google might pull out but that’s it, no reason is reported.
Yea? But most China websites reported this news with reasons which Google’s ceo explained… BTW, even the translation of Google’s CEO’s post were published in Chinese.
Google CEO’s post? I have not seen that, could you direct me to the resource?
http://images.google.cn/images?hl=zh-CN&source=hp&q=tianamen%20square&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
Looks like the censor is already removed?
Yeah sure Google did say that, but what’s stopping the Chinese government to still “attack” Google China employees? I’m worried that China will take them to the Ministry of Love
I think this thing may be Google’s conspiracy haha.
This will make Baidu extremely happy; another monopoly created if Google pulls out.
Except that when you are working in China, it’s not especially a good news… Of course it makes things going forward and it is the “right” thing to do. But it may affect lot of people !
I suppose there must be lot of pressure on Google consultants that are in charge to deal with Chinese government. If they are asked to provide personal informations of some Google users in China as it happened for Yahoo, I understand they might not want to follow the same path.
You bring up a good point. I wonder what kind of support they will have for communication if Google pulls out. I also wonder if and how Google can get those people out of China if they go through with this.
This must have been a brutally hard decision. It could, in all seriousness, cost some people their lives. Still, it’s the right decision.
Who needs Google in China when they have their own search engine — Baidu.com. If Google pulls out of China, it is not going to be missed — the void would just be quickly filled out by local search engines.
Actually, Google.cn has a 29% market share, that might now be much but we have remember that China has a population of 1.3 billion people and 29% of that is a lot.
If you look only on numbers, yes China is a big market. But what about the NDA an human rights! I do not understand why democratic countries have to obey to non democratic ones. Think about it; one day you wake up and you will be surprised that UR in a bad situation.
So I agree totally with Google decision.
There are a lot of people in China do need Google. Anyway we will continue to access Google even if we need to climb over the great firewall.
Baidu is a USA company, it is not a local company. Baidu’s main market is China and Japan.
Maybe this is a tipping point in the West’s so-far-blindfolded engagement with China?
It’s no big deal for the Chinese government. They’ll tell Google to gtfo and Baidu will make like Google never existed, just like how nothing significant ever happened in Tiananmen square.
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I actually doubt if Google will indeed pullout from China but I wouldn’t be surprised, either.
If Automattic pulled the plug in China instead of following the wishes of the communist government, then Google could surely do the same. But then again, what is wordpress.com compared to google?
Finally google proves that ethics are way more important than minting money. This will definitely spark up the human right activist in China as well as around the world. CIIRC will now have something to think over.
what a shame, China.
I just don’t know what to say. Who knows what will be going on in China Mainland. XXX Sucks!
It’s said that employees would get 6 months extra paid after Google had left China. This info came from a Tweet with #GoogleCN tag and I don’t know if it’s real.
Google just stepped in front of a tank.
This is an astonishing move for a large corporation whose share price is based largely upon the assumption of continuous worldwide growth. Their share price has already taken a hit and analysts are now upping their rating on competitor Baidu.
What this means is that, despite their extremely privileged and cosseted lives, despite the fact that they can safely sit back and enjoy life in the bubble, the top execs at Google have somehow remembered their humanity, their connection to principled people sitting, desperately worried and frightened, in cold prison cells on the other side of the world.
While pretty much every other Western company fall over themselves to appease the Chinese government, Google have, incredibly, done the right thing.
I presumed “Don’t Be Evil” was just a cute slogan but, no, they meant it, my respect for this company has surged. In these sorry times, nothing speaks louder than a company choosing principle over greed.
Matt, I hope you keep protecting the DNA of Automattic, no matter how much money gets thrown at you.
The interesting thing is, not only Google is pulling out, even many local Chinese startups are pulling out.
Google has won the respect of people
All of you who cited Baidu taking over if Google leaves China are correct. That’s what the government wants. It’s not just Google.cn that’s filtered. It’s ALL of the websites. One of the must lucrative jobs in China is as an Internet screener! In Changsha alone (SE China, city of 6 million), there are over 60,000 people employed to block, report and filter information on the Internet. China is still a communist country. The Internet, TV, radio and cell phones can be shut down within an hour.
Amazing analyzing! But how do you get this data? I am from Hong Kong, never heard so much people were involved.
FBI is doing the same thing… Monitor the internet…
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What’s happeneing in China CAN happen here…except the content control will come via the corps like Comcast (who are working to buy NBC) and Supreme Court decisions against Net Neutrality… plus a do nothing Congress that talks Net neutrality while accepting donations from the big pipe owners like Comcast, et al….
As far as the hundreds of thousands of Chinese employed in monitoring the online activities of their citizens…how many of our fellow Americans do you think are employed by No Such Agency? Not to mention the good folks at ATT who are more than happy to provide taps to the Inet and Telco backbone for the snoops….
It seems not many people have realised what I thought was immediately obvious:
You might trust Google with your personal information but if they can be hacked into then it is not just Google you are trusting but every nefarious hacker as well.
I just read about it on the Google blog earlier today. Glad to see that you picked it up.
Odds are good that ma.tt is monitored by Chinese officials and they’ve already read your blog post. Thanks for not caving in to China with WP.com. Maybe Google’s move will change things.
Google should give Google.cn full rights to operate the business in China, just like what myspace did in China, or, sell Google.cn to a company, just like yahoo sell yahoo.cn to alibaba.
Google violated copyright of Chinese writers in China and was taken to court. The CEO of Google apologized to the Chinese writers but his apology was not accepted by the writers for not being sincere. This is the main reason the CEO was angry with China. Not the bulls*** reason of cyber attacks. USA and west attack every non-western human being in this world what are you people saying about that?
You white and ‘human right thugs’ should check reality and behave as decent human should. Not supporting death, destruction, and mass murder of Arabs. Do not support and behave like the ultra arrogant anti-human thugs of the rich and powerful Americans. (Google CEO for one.)
Google wants to support anti-Chinese terrorists. This exact behavior is the reason why terrorists attack the west. What goes around comes around you people must remember that.
The west need reality check. Google is ultra rich. Typical behavior of these people are arrogant.
This arrogance is the real reason. The west really need t learn more about China. Your ignorance make you people behave irresponsible and violate the human right of Chinese in China.
Remember Chinese are also human and has rights too. Chinese are not some subhuman controlled by a government.
Take it easy, raysimlee
China is Just Another USA for 1920′s. Freedom limited by the law. Also in USA. The darkness will disappear in the future.
Google is Just Another chess of the Chinamerica Chessboard.
Chinamerica is Just Another chess of Mid-term elections. Obama must criticize China to get more support. Google should do something to support Obama, also get a big news.
Google’s request is Just Another extraterritoriality, that is Just Another joke. China did not care about to ban all Google service. Google must obey the China law when in China.
Google is not Just Another U.S. Embassy.
haha… Just Another WordPress.com blog…
Google isn’t going to pack up it’s operations in china just because of censorship issues, which are there in many other countries like India, or hacking issues, which are there in all the countries.
This is just a threat to render a blow at China’s censorship model, which I don’t think is working.
There are enough smart people working at Google who realize that it isn’t practical to quit the biggest internet market.
Checkout this article http://techguylabs.org/2010/01/24/google-china-fiasco-the-complete-picture/.