Google discussing internet freedom with China
Last week Google chief legal officer David Drummond announced that Google will cease censoring its search engine results in China after being victim in December of a cyber attack on corporate infrastructure that had the goal of violating the Gmail accounts of Chinese human right activists.
After four years of Google.cn operations in China, complying with the Chinese government’s demands on censoring some results, Google is taking a stand for internet freedom, threatening to shut Google.cn down. This sudden change of policy is raising skepticism about Google’s true motives, but some may say that it’s never too late to do the right thing, even if this course of action would damage Google’s prospects in China.
Some business analysts think that shutting Google.cn down, while favoring Baidu, wouldn’t affect Google’s revenues in China, because they are mainly generated by Chinese companies advertising on Google.com and are marginal compared to global revenues. This may be true, but internet adoption in China is increasing dramatically and Google may have jeopardized its position in the most important market for search engines.
The US government is currently meeting Chinese authorities to ask them for an explanation for the cyber espionage activities that targeted many large companies and discuss the matter. Implying that the Chinese government is supporting cyberwarfare against human right activists and western companies doesn’t leave much room for negotiation because the Chinese government can’t lose face after Google’s confrontational public announcement.
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