[IRP] Fwd: [Expression] Googleblog: A new approach to China

[Max Senges]

Hi FoE & IRP peers

I certainly agree with Ben.  Rebecca wrote in a blogpost earlier
today<http://rconversation.blogs.com/rconversation/2010/03/chinese-netizens-open-letter-to-the-chinese-government-and-google.html>
:

"I'm also hearing from many people that the "Google China incident" - as
many Chinese call it - has greatly heightened awareness among normally
apolitical Chinese Internet users about the extent of Internet censorship in
their country. It has sparked a lot of debate and soul searching about the
extent to which their government is causing them to be isolated from the
rest of the world."

I thing a debate about how to support this soul searching could be quite
productive.

Best
Max

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ben Wagner <b at nwagner.org>
Date: Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 8:49 PM
Subject: [Expression] Googleblog: A new approach to China
To: Expression IPjustice <expression at ipjustice.org>


This looks like it could be quite interesting. It remains to be see how this
pans out in the wider scheme of things, but it certainly is an interesting
development.


"[...] earlier today we stopped censoring our search services?Google Search,
Google News, and Google Images?on Google.cn. Users visiting Google.cn are
now being redirected to Google.com.hk <http://www.google.com.hk/>, where we
are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese, specifically designed
for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong.
Users in Hong Kong will continue to receive their existing uncensored,
traditional Chinese service, also from
Google.com.hk<http://www.google.com.hk/>.
Due to the increased load on our Hong Kong servers and the complicated
nature of these changes, users may see some slowdown in service or find some
products temporarily inaccessible as we switch everything over.

Figuring out how to make good on our promise to stop censoring search on
Google.cn has been hard. We want as many people in the world as possible to
have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the
Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that
self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement. We believe this new
approach of providing uncensored search in simplified Chinese from
Google.com.hk <http://www.google.com.hk/> is a sensible solution to the
challenges we've faced?it's entirely legal and will meaningfully increase
access to information for people in China. We very much hope that the
Chinese government respects our decision, though we are well aware that it
could at any time block access to our services. We will therefore be
carefully monitoring access issues, and have created this new web
page<http://www.google.com/prc/report.html#hl=en>,
which we will update regularly each day, so that everyone can see which
Google services are available in China.

In terms of Google's wider business operations, we intend to continue R&D
work in China and also to maintain a sales presence there, though the size
of the sales team will obviously be partially dependent on the ability of
mainland Chinese users to access Google.com.hk <http://www.google.com.hk/>.
Finally, we would like to make clear that all these decisions have been
driven and implemented by our executives in the United States, and that none
of our employees in China can, or should, be held responsible for them.
Despite all the uncertainty and difficulties they have faced since we made
our announcement in January, they have continued to focus on serving our
Chinese users and customers. We are immensely proud of them."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/new-approach-to-china-update.html


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