Asia-Pacific News

Google tries 'landing page' under pressure from China

Jun 29, 2010, 14:33 GMT

US internet giant Google Inc on Tuesday said it had started diverting users of its main Chinese website to a \'landing page\' that links to an uncensored Google site in Hong Kong, following pressure from the Chinese government. EPA/YM YIK

Beijing - US internet giant Google Inc on Tuesday said it had started diverting users of its main Chinese website to a 'landing page' that links to an uncensored Google site in Hong Kong, following pressure from the Chinese government.

Google had redirected its Google.cn website to the uncensored Google.com.hk site since April, after announcing in January that it would stop censoring its Chinese search results, which it had been required to do by mainland authorities.

'This redirect, which offers unfiltered search in simplified Chinese, has been working well for our users and for Google,' Google's chief legal officer David Drummond said in a blog post.

'However, it's clear from conversations we have had with Chinese government officials that they find the redirect unacceptable and that if we continue redirecting users our Internet Content Provider license will not be renewed,' Drummond said.

Without the ICP licence, which is scheduled for renewal on Wednesday, 'Google would effectively go dark in China,' Drummond said.

The 'landing page' has the appearance of a standard Google page but all attempts to click on it automatically redirect the user to the Hong Kong site.

Drummond said the page was designed so that when fully operational users could choose to 'continue to use Google.cn services like music and text translate, which we can provide locally without filtering.'

'This approach ensures we stay true to our commitment not to censor our results on Google.cn and gives users access to all of our services from one page,' he said.

'This new approach is consistent with our commitment not to self-censor and, we believe, with local law,' Drummond said. 'We are therefore hopeful that our license will be renewed on this basis so we can continue to offer our Chinese users services via Google.cn.'

Google said its ending of censorship on the Google.cn site was made after discovering cyber-attacks that originated in China and targeted Google servers as well as those of other Western companies.

The attacks included attempts to compromise Chinese human rights activists' e-mail accounts, Google said.

The Chinese government denied any involvement in the attacks and has defended its strict control of the internet.

The government employs tens of thousands of internet police to try to keep content broadly in line with Communist Party ideology. The internet police block hundreds of websites that are deemed politically sensitive.

Internet service providers and telecommunication firms are required to comply with government censorship rules and oversee the activities of China's estimated 400 million internet users.

In early June, the government said the posting of political content 'endangering state security' or 'subverting state power' would continue to be defined as a criminal act.