Google has said it will end the controversial censorship of its search service in China and risk being thrown out of the world’s most populous internet market, following what it claimed were China-based attempts to hack into its systems and those of other international companies.The dramatic gesture, which Google discussed with the US government beforehand, marks a new low in the deteriorating cyber-relations between China and the rest of the world, following a spate of online attacks and efforts to tighten web censorship.
Several people laid down flowers and wreaths outside Google’s offices in the Zhongguancun high-tech district in a northwestern corner of Beijing. When security guards called the move “illegal”, the phrase “illegal flower donation” became an instant target for online mockery.
Bloggers and other commentators online raised alarm over the risk that a potential pullout of Google could leave China’s internet even more unfree as the US company’s drastic step followed a series of moves by Beijing to tighten internet censorship over the past year.
US intelligence officials believe hackers supported by the Chinese government have been behind major breaches at US defence contractors, who have in some cases been targeted using the same previous unknown software vulnerabilities as trick emails sent to Chinese dissidents.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Google takes on China on censorship
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