How Google Censors Its Chinese Portal

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Randall <rvh40 () insightbb com>
Date: February 6, 2006 12:01:19 AM EST
To: Dave <dave () farber net>, Dewayne Hendricks  
<dewayne () warpspeed com>, cyberia <CYBERIA-L () LISTSERV AOL COM>
Subject: How Google Censors Its Chinese Portal

http://htdaw.blogsource.com/post.mhtml?post_id=219624

How Google Censors Its Chinese Portal
Sunday, February 05, 2006 at 11:59 PM EST
 How Google censors its Chinese portal

By ELLEN LEE
San Francisco Chronicle
03-FEB-06

Google is a window on the world, but your view can depend on whether
you're in the West or the East.

Search for images of "Tiananmen," as in Tiananmen Square, scene of the
1989 student democracy protest, on the China site, Google.cn. Most of
the time the results turn up pictures of the Beijing plaza: a flock of
birds soaring above the grounds, the square all lit up at night,
tourists posing for the camera.

Run the same search again on Google.com, the uncensored version used
here in the United States, and the images are strikingly different. The
highest-ranking results are photographs of tanks rolling into the square
to put a stop to the demonstration more than 16 years ago.

"Google uncensored shows a bunch of tanks streaming in there," said
Danny Sullivan, founder and editor of Search Engine Watch. "Google China
has smiling, happy people."

That is just one example of how Google censored its Web site for the
launch in China last week and highlights the Silicon Valley Internet
company's ethical dilemma: How does it stay true to its "don't be evil"
mantra while tapping into China's booming Internet market?

To acquire a license to operate in China, Google, like Yahoo and
Microsoft, agreed to block certain results, such as Web pages promoting
causes that the Chinese government has deemed unacceptable, such as an
independent Tibet and Falun Gong, the controversial spiritual and
political group. Such blocks make it tough, though not impossible, for
consumers in China to use Google to find that kind of information.

Google's filters act by removing certain Web pages from the search
results. The filtering, however, is by no means perfect, nor does it aim
to be: Spell "Tiananmen" incorrectly, and photographs of the tanks will
appear. Even if you spell the word correctly in a word search, scrolling
down the results can sometimes yield apparently uncensored sites
displaying vivid photos of dead protesters. But it's not clear what
results are showing up in China, where there are additional firewalls.

Google clearly is still hammering out the kinks. At first, some sites
such as Budweiser.com were inadvertently blocked but now have been put
back, according to CNET.

Google, which has been widely criticized for its decision to self-censor
Google.cn, has defended itself by saying it introduced a filtered Web
site in China because its original service there did not operate well.
At least now, it contends, its Chinese customers will be better able to
use Google products.

Google declined to speak at a congressional hearing on the subject
Wednesday. But in a statement to the Congressional Human Rights Caucus,
Andrew McLaughlin, Google's senior policy counsel, said, "We are not
happy about governmental restrictions on access to information, and we
hope that over time everyone in the world will come to enjoy full access
to information ... We believe that our continued engagement with China
is the best (and perhaps only) way for Google to help bring the
tremendous benefits of universal information access to all our users
there."

Google tells users whenever its results are censored, he added.

Internet users in the United States can see the filtering for themselves
by comparing the results on Google.cn and Google.com. Several Web sites
have even created side-by-side comparison tools.

Take Falun Gong, for instance. The top result for a search on "Falun
Gong" on Google.cn was a site that discusses the group as a cult with an
"anti-humanity and anti-society essence"; the site also includes
articles detailing the group's "unlawful accumulations of money."

At Google.com, on the other hand, the No. 1 result is a site that
characterizes Falun Gong as a "powerful practice to improve mind, body
and spirit" and includes photographs of children and seniors.

The push for Tibet's independence, which the Chinese government opposes,
also is a hot-button topic. Search for "Tibet independence," and
Google.cn leads users to a China Daily article with the headline "Dalai
Lama urged to give up Tibet independence." Google.com takes the user to
the International Tibet Independence Movement's home page, with
information on why Tibet should be independent and how supporters can
help.

It will be up to Chinese officials to contact Google if they feel the
Internet company is not following its censorship laws to the letter.
That's when it will get interesting, said John Palfrey, executive
director of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. How will
Google react if the Chinese government demands stronger filters or asks
Google to turn over data on its users?

"That's when you'll see the true colors of the company on this topic,"
Palfrey said.

The trade-off for Google and other U.S. technology companies, of course,
is their ability now to bank on China's rapidly growing market. The
number of Internet users in China grew more than 18 percent to about 94
million early last year, according to the China Internet Network
Information Center.

And though the Chinese government has forced technology companies to
comply with its censorship policies, Internet users now can access more
information than ever before.

"People have much more information to access and have much greater ways
to express themselves," said Xiao Qiang, director of the UC Berkeley
China Internet Project. "They have to be careful, (but) the Internet is
still playing a very positive role. The government is losing the battle
to keep information out."

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.shns.com.)

http://www.shns.com/shns/g_index2.cfm?action=detail&pk=GOOGLE- 
CENSOR-02-03-06


--
"We've got the hatemongers who literally hate this president, and that
is so wrong. . . . The people who hate George Bush hate him because he's
a follower of Jesus Christ, unashamedly says so and applies his faith in
his day-to-day operations." -- Rev. Jerry Falwell, on C-SPAN's  
"Washington Journal"



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