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Facebook Plunges Again
Google implicates the Chinese government of cyber warfare, considers pulling out of China
Google goes on to say that the primary focus of the attack was its Gmail service. But it gets murkier: it was a targeted attack on the email accounts of Chinese human rights activists. And to add insult to injury: U.S.-, Europe- and China-based users who are advocates of human rights in China have been routinely accessed by third parties. In other words, someone (the Chinese security agency?) has phished for account details or installed backdoor/trojan malware on these advocates' computers.
Ultimately, in an act that is surely designed to extol their primary tenet, virtue and slogan 'don't be evil', Google is now planning to remove its censoring of the Internet for Chinese users. "[...] We will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China."
Remember the day, for this is finally the day when a corporation sticks it to an entire nation. The largest nation in the world. Google's sure got balls.
Update 14 January 21:10 EST: The White House has now added their support of Google's actions against China.
Comments
28
Subscribe to commentsDeoWulfJan 12th 2010 8:39PM
I'd say this is a fair fight. And for once, I'm really rooting for Google.
Sebastian AnthonyJan 12th 2010 8:43PM
I don't know if it's a fair fight, but China definitely have a lot to lose if Google walk away. At the very least it's going to be an interesting fight :)
DeoWulfJan 12th 2010 10:08PM
World's Biggest corporation (possibly, kind of, at least mindshare) vs. World's Biggest country (Russia's 'bigger', but I suppose you could call this mindshare too... they have more of them).
I really think Google's got the upper hand here, though. It's got much more positive appeal than China in this issue. This could be a major factor in the defining of China's government. Who knew?
JackJan 12th 2010 8:41PM
I couldn't believe it when I read it. /. still has plenty of people writing this off as PR. I couldn't disagree more, they have tried multiple times over the years to use unfiltered search results and I guess just fell in line in the end (which you shouldn't really blame them for, no better than the rest of us who continually trade with China). Great to see they are fighting back.
Sebastian AnthonyJan 12th 2010 8:45PM
Hehe, if anyone can attempt to pull this off, it's Google. It is (or will be) one hell of a PR coup though, that's for sure.
If anything, this might throw a spanner in the works for the Chinese government. Snooping on human rights activists... eep...
(But then what do I know, maybe every country does that...)
PeterJan 12th 2010 9:04PM
@Sebastian - "maybe every country does that" Yes they do. Every government in the world monitors people it thinks are a threat. I don't know where you've been but the Chinese government has been monitoring its citizens and squashing dissent for quite a long time.
In the long run, change needs to come from within. As much as we may dislike some of things the government of China does, they are their own country and they are free to do what they want within their borders. If the citizens don't like it, they need to institute the change. It's really not right for one country to impose its political, moral, religious, economic, or other beliefs on another country. Can you image the outrage if China tried to tell us how to run our country?
Sebastian AnthonyJan 12th 2010 9:07PM
Well, let's not get into THAT discussion here.
I think 'most people' would say that human rights are a good thing. Obviously I'm not an authority, but if you asked a China man if he'd prefer to live under his own government or the American one... well...
I understand that governments keep an eye on security threats. But the fact that human rights constitute a viable threat to the Chinese government is a bit worrying -- in my opinion :)
KCJan 12th 2010 11:02PM
@Sebastian:
"Obviously I'm not an authority, but if you asked a China man if he'd prefer to live under his own government or the American one... well..."
... Well, what? I hope you're not implying that most Chinese people would prefer to live in the US, because you'd probably be wrong. Obviously you are not an authority, as you say.
cmsb55Jan 12th 2010 8:41PM
Pull out ha ha.
Wow I'm immature...
ScooterGJan 12th 2010 9:54PM
As long as they get a little on North Korea when they do...
JackJan 12th 2010 11:50PM
And Australia is going the way China is.... going to filter our (Australia's) internet.
I gotta say, it is a good move for Google. Standing up to Freedom of Speech in the world. Well done!
turtlejpJan 12th 2010 11:52PM
At this point it is just posturing. I will believe it when I see google.cn go dark. Nothing to mark the calender worthy just yet.
teknikkleJan 12th 2010 11:58PM
lmao china has to sneak and do this because they havent passed the patriot act yet.. if you think YOUR country doesnt engage in this same activity youre stupid..
WrinkliezJan 13th 2010 12:10AM
I hope you're not trying to compare the Patriot Act, a deal that was made to catch terrorists, to China tapping into Googles databases to find human right activists...
roJan 13th 2010 12:36AM
like, you seriously think china cares? live in this corner of the world for a while and you'll soon start to undestand that...
a) given time - a few months - and google out of the way and china is more than capable of duplicatig the services offered by google AND doing so in a manner which suits their needs
b) google are just walking away from the most important marketplace they'll have for the forseeable future.
frankly, the west simply doesn't realise where china is currently at and where it's headed. don't believe the western press, it lies (as does the chinese. all press lie, get over it.) china is booming, 98% of the population are as happy as sandboys with their future prospects, and they'll walk all over us if we continue to stick our heads in the sand and act like it's some third world undeveloped nation. sure, they're weird, mean and repressive, but they're coming and we'd better wake up to that fact before they own and produce everything we cherish.
oh, hang on, they already do...
enerGIJan 13th 2010 3:20AM
Will Google make their theme music "I like Chinese" by Monty Python LOL
MarkyJan 13th 2010 8:03AM
Google is important but don't overstress the inpact in China. There are other search engines which are more popular there.
If Google achieve anything it's to highlight the difficulties in culture between American and Chinese companies when it comes to rights and how to do business.
JohannJan 13th 2010 4:06AM
Google should obey the local Chinese Law and Order, Otherwise, Please pack and Leave China!
Tony MontanaJan 13th 2010 4:34AM
It doesn't matter if Google.cn was shut down the most popular search engine in China is Baidu even now.
Most Chinese people prefer using Baidu over Google already so if it shuts down its not like they are losing anything when they have a domestic search engine much more popular.
Plus the article is being misrepresented the article doesn't say "We are going to war with China" the article pretty much says they are going to plead to China to get some things changed.
I'm usually a Google supporter but this is a terrible move that will have huge consequences on the company. When companies go operate in other nations they have to follow the rules there. If Google gets a reputation China will not be the only country that won't do business with Google.
If China decides to take this even further it will be even more problematic for Google since this pretty Nexus One phones are not exactly assembled in Silicone Valley.
I think Google have taken the first step to being irrelevant in the next decade or so.
TezzJan 13th 2010 6:56AM
@ peter.
Tiananmen Square says hello