Rumor Mill: Google to Shut Down Chinese Search Engine this April
It would seem there is no way the Chinese authorities will allow Google to stop censoring search results on Google.cn , the Chinese version of Google Search . So Google will do just what it said it would – mainly, close down Google.cn and pull out of China. According to a Beijing-based newspaper that cites an unidentified sales associate who works with Google, the search engine will be shut down on April 10th.
Google has not provided any comment on the situation. It is expected that more information on the situation in China will be provided by the Mountain View-based search engine giant this week.
The spotlight fell on the Google-China conflict this January when Google announced its corporate infrastructure was hit a by “highly sophisticated and targeted attack.” The attack’s main goal was to access the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. The attack, which originated from China, spurred Google to say that it has had enough and no longer wants to censor search results on Google.cn. Google said that if the Chinese authorities would not let it do so, then it would have to “review the feasibility of [its] business operations in China”
After lengthy negotiations with the Chinese authorities, none of the two involved parties would budge. Google continues to stand behind its decision to stop censoring search results in China; the Chinese authorities stand behind the law and warned Google that it will suffer the consequences if it violates China’s laws and regulations (which state that search results must be censored). After the stalemate had been reached, reports surfaced stating that Google is "99.9 percent” certain to shut the Chinese search engine down.
Furthermore, reports surface a few days ago stating that Google pulled the plug on search results censoring and let some previously censored material slip by. According to the MSNBC, “web sites dealing with subjects such as the Tiananmen Square democracy protests, Tibet and regional independence movements could all be accessed through Google's Chinese search engine.”
Google has not provided any comment on the situation. It is expected that more information on the situation in China will be provided by the Mountain View-based search engine giant this week.
The spotlight fell on the Google-China conflict this January when Google announced its corporate infrastructure was hit a by “highly sophisticated and targeted attack.” The attack’s main goal was to access the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. The attack, which originated from China, spurred Google to say that it has had enough and no longer wants to censor search results on Google.cn. Google said that if the Chinese authorities would not let it do so, then it would have to “review the feasibility of [its] business operations in China”
After lengthy negotiations with the Chinese authorities, none of the two involved parties would budge. Google continues to stand behind its decision to stop censoring search results in China; the Chinese authorities stand behind the law and warned Google that it will suffer the consequences if it violates China’s laws and regulations (which state that search results must be censored). After the stalemate had been reached, reports surfaced stating that Google is "99.9 percent” certain to shut the Chinese search engine down.
Furthermore, reports surface a few days ago stating that Google pulled the plug on search results censoring and let some previously censored material slip by. According to the MSNBC, “web sites dealing with subjects such as the Tiananmen Square democracy protests, Tibet and regional independence movements could all be accessed through Google's Chinese search engine.”
