Sponsored Links

UPDATE 1-China says Google "totally wrong" on censoring move

Related Topics

Mon Mar 22, 2010 6:53pm EDT

* China attacks Google

* Tough line signalled

BEIJING, March 23 (Reuters) - China said on Tuesday that Google Inc had violated a "written promise" and was "totally wrong" to end censorship of its Chinese-language search portal, signalling a tough line over the Internet dispute.

An unnamed official from China's State Council Information Office, which helps oversee Internet rules, made the comments after Google started redirecting users of its China mainland-based Google.cn site to a portal in Hong Kong, ending self-censorship of its Chinese-language searches.

The official's comments suggested Google could not expect an easy time from mainland authorities, over two months after the company said it would no longer accept self-censorship of its Google.cn site and was also alarmed by sophisticated hacking attacks coming from China.

"Google has violated the written promise it made on entering the Chinese market," the official said, according to a report from the China News Service, a state-run news agency.

"It is totally wrong in halting (censorship) filtering of its search provider and also making aspersions and accusations towards China about hacking attacks", said the official.

"We firmly oppose politicising commercial issues, and express our dissatisfaction and anger at Google Inc's unreasonable accusations and practices," said the official.

The State Council Information Office is the government arm of China's propaganda apparatus, and is among several agencies overseeing Internet policy for the ruling Communist Party.

China censors the Internet by requiring domestic operators to use filters to screen out banned images and words, and also operates a "firewall" to frustrate users trying to access overseas websites that are deemed unacceptable.

The official said that Chinese government officials held talks with Google twice -- on Jan. 29 and Feb. 25 -- to discuss the dispute.

In those talks, China warned Google that if it chose to shut its China-based search portal, it would have to do so according to Chinese law and also ensure that left-over problems were handled "responsibly," said the report.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley, editing by Tim Pearce)

Stocks
Markets
Media
We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/
Comments (6)
MikeJohnston wrote:
I personally think it’s great that google has chosen to stand up to the chinese government. Enough is enough.

Mar 22, 2010 7:00pm EDT  --  Report as abuse
Whys wrote:
Yep. Enough is enough. Here here! Go Google.

Mar 22, 2010 7:13pm EDT  --  Report as abuse
Revo wrote:
This is exciting because it is a corporation against a government. Terrible choice though in my opinion, Google does not represent enough of the Chinese market to make this sort of move count for anything but self interest. China is likely just to kick them out and cause problems due to the offensive nature of these actions.

Mar 22, 2010 7:18pm EDT  --  Report as abuse
This discussion is now closed. We welcome comments on our articles for a limited period after their publication.
See All Comments »