Google to leave China?

[yehbut_nobut]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8455712.stm

Internet search company Google says it may end operations in China over alleged breaches of the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists.
It said in a blog post it had detected a "highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China".
"A primary goal of the attackers was accessing the gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists", it added.
Google did not specifically accuse the Chinese government.
But the company said it was "no longer willing to continue censoring our results" on its Chinese search engine, as the government requires.
Google said the decision could force it to shut down its Chinese site and its offices in the country.

Their previous China policy always left me a bit suspicious of their "do no evil" slogan... is there some hope that they'll live up to it?

[Al.]

is there some hope that they'll live up to it?

There's always hope. And sometimes hope can overcome likelihood (sometimes).

[Interista]

It said in a blog post it had detected a "highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China".

Would it be too cynical to say that google are more worried about the above than about 'human rights'? After all, they didn't much mind that their search engine was subject to Chinese censorship when they set up there first.

[seenitallb4]

It's probably about both the bottom line and about human rights. If it happens, it would mark one of the high points in the history of corporate America.

[Christine Murray]

regular updates here >> http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...king-attack-us http://www.twitter.com/guardiantech

[Sync]

Seems to be 2 parts to this, firstly (and the smaller part) there's the "Do no evil" thing, but secondly there's the censorship of results in China that Google were never happy about. They seem to be trying to leverage the allegation that the hack attempt was govt organised into the dropping that censorship.

ATM they've got only about 30% of the market compared to 70% for the national service. But it's China. They're not going to get their censorship. So Google can decide it doesn't work with China, and sacrifice their market share to Bing, Yahoo etc, or they can compromise/back down without losing face. They're not going to achieve their goal of uncensored results.

[Half Nelson]

Any company which operates a policy of censorship on behalf of an oppressive, anti-democracy government, deserves to be condemned on the world stage.

This censorship is undoubtedly the lowest point in the history of the internet.

[seenitallb4]

Any company which operates a policy of censorship on behalf of an oppressive, anti-democracy government, deserves to be condemned on the world stage.

This censorship is undoubtedly the lowest point in the history of the internet.

I agree. It was a squalid betrayal. Let's hope they redeem themselves here. If they actually stand up to the CCP thugs on this one, it may make quite a difference.

[The Caped Cod]

I think China aren't as hard on "cyber terrorist" who attack the west as the west would want.

[goosebump]

Any company which operates a policy of censorship on behalf of an oppressive, anti-democracy government, deserves to be condemned on the world stage.

This censorship is undoubtedly the lowest point in the history of the internet.

Google is a commercial organisation, not some sort of hippy commune.

Plenty of companies tow the line of the regimes of the countries in which they operate, and in the round, Google has done a lot more for political freedom than any other Internet company.

Google is probably used a couple of times a minute on this forum alone.