Google Says No to Censorship and Yes to Human Rights
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Google has laid down the gauntlet. The Internet giant has threatened to withdraw its service from China after a cyberattack on a number of accounts, including those of human rights activists in the country, reports The New York Times. The ultimatum: It's either an unfiltered search engine or adios to Google.cn.
As for the Chinese government, it was business as usual. References to "free speech" and "surveillance" were omitted from Chinese news reports about Google's decision.
While the scope of the hacking and the motivations and identities of the hackers remained uncertain, Google’s response amounted to an unambiguous repudiation of its five-year courtship of the China market, which most major multinational companies consider crucial to their growth prospects. It is also likely to enrage the Chinese authorities, who deny that they censor the Internet and are accustomed to having major foreign companies adapt their practices to Chinese norms. ...
If Google does leave, it would be an unusual rebuke of China by one of the largest and most admired technology companies, which had for years coveted the country’s 300 million Web users. Google said it would try to negotiate a new arrangement to provide uncensored results on its search site, google.cn. But that is highly unlikely in a country that has the most sweeping Web filtering system in the world. Google said it would otherwise cease to run google.cn and would consider shutting its offices in China, where it employs about 700 people, many of them well-paid software engineers, and has an estimated $300 million a year in revenue.
