Censorship Problem between China and Google - Essay Example

During March, Google stopped censoring its search results in China following its earlier warning that it would pull out its operation from the country if no consensus would reach with the Chinese Government(Google 'may pull out of China after Gmail cyber attack'). The Chinese users were redirected to the uncensored pages of its Hong Kong website, as from March 22. (Google stops censoring search results in China ). The horn between Google and China started after Google received some highly sophisticated and coordinated hack attack on its overseas servers. The company said that the attacks were originated from China. Beside Google, at least 20 other companies were attacked. The intensity of the attack was too much high, as said by Dmitri Alperovitch, the VP of threat research for McAfee, “We have never ever, outside of the defense industry, seen commercial industrial companies come under that level of sophisticated attack,”. He continued, “It’s totally changing the threat model.” (Zetter) Google said that these attacks were meant for controlling the Gmail accounts of some human rights activist involved in China issue (Drummond). However, the company said that the hackers were only able to obtain some minor information from those accounts such as the date the account was created and subject lines of some emails. In the Official Google’s Blog, the company said that it is sharing almost every information about the hack attack with a broad audience not only because of the security concerns, but also considering the human rights implications and because these in formations goes to the heart of a much bigger global debate about freedom of views and freedom of speech (Drummond). In a news article in the official blog of Google, Zetter, said that Google was launched in China believing the benefits of increased access to wide variety of information for people in China and wanted to make the Internet more open. However, the implementation of censor laws proved to be a matter of much distress for the company. He said that the continuous attacks and the surveillance that they have discovered in the country for the limitation of speech on the web, have forced the company to review the feasibility of its business operations. Therefore, the censoring of the results on Google.cn was decided to be abolished, if no consensus would reach with the Chinese Government. Google-China talks continued for about a weak, however, no agreement was derived between two and eventually, Google stopped censoring its search results by redirecting its Chinese users to its Honkong based search pages, where Google is not legally required to censor searches. Redirecting search queries to Honkong based Google search does not mean that Chinese can access everything on the net as the government filters weeds out those inappropriate results. The Chinese version of Google was launched in January 2006. At that time, Google agreed to some censorship of its search results as per the requirement of the Chinese government. China has very strict laws about the censorship of anti-state elements, pornography, and other elements that it find deemed to be inappropriate for its netizens. The severity can be known by the fact that there are sixty Internet regulations which have been made by the government, which are strictly being implemented by state-owned ISPs, organizations and business companies(How Censorship Works in China: A Brief Overview). The People’s Republic of China is considered to be the most extensive country in the world in repressing its internet users. The Amnesty International noted that China has the largest number of imprisoned journalist and cyber-dissidents in the world, who were sentenced to strict imprisonment just for peaceful expression of their opinions online(Taylor). According to Steve Ballinger of Amnesty International, "Some of the offences they are accused of are signing an online petition, sending information to a foreign organization, or disseminating information about the SARS virus."(Taylor). The Government of China for preventing its netizens to access such information and website on the internet introduced a system, naming it “The Golden Shield Project”, also popularly known as “The Great Firewall of China”. The idea was generated during 1998, by the Ministry of Public Security of the People’s Republic of China, whereas the process began in November 2003. The system blocks all those data on internet what it believes “unhealthy” and “politically sensitive”. The system blocks those websites by preventing IP addresses, passing information through firewalls and proxy servers at the Internet gateways. Through the “Great Firewall of China”, the People Republic of China does not allow any person to use the internet to create, replicate, retrieve, or transmit inciting to resist or breaking the Constitution or laws or the implementation of administrative regulations, inciting to overthrow the government or the socialist system, inciting division of the country, harming national unification, injuring the reputation of state organs and any other activity that Government find against the Constitution, laws or administrative regulations(Rummo). It does not allow a web site that belongs to outlawed or suppressed groups including those of pro-democracy activists and Falun Gong. It blocks news sources that cover news stories about topic such as police brutality, protests of 1989, freedom of speech, Tiananmen Square etc. BBC News, Voice of America, The New York Time, Huffington Post and many other media sites have been blocked in this regard. It also blocks websites containing obscenity or pornography and criminal activity. The websites containing information about Dalai Lama and its teaching; and International Tibet Independence Movement are also not allowed to be viewed. Beside these, any website, blogging platform, forum, etc which is deemed as subversive is immediately blocked by the Government. Also, every search engine, operating in China, be it local or international, is required to filter search results of certain keywords and terms. According to an estimate, China has a staggering 30,000 internet police force, which is dedicated to monitor the internet traffic for any outlawed information and words (Taylor). Not only websites are screened, but personal e-mails are also monitored. The internet cafes in the country, which are more than 110,000, are also regulated by the state. These cafes are required to record the name and identity card number; and take a snapshot of the person wanting to use the internet cafe. All these cafes are equipped with standard surveillance systems. In short, the People’s Republic of China is immensely strict regarding the internet information flow. It is continuously trying its best to suppress any information which is anti-state, unhealthy, or otherwise politically insensitive. Therefore, it wants from every company to strictly follow those regulation and also want them to sign an agreement at the beginning, for the fulfillment of all the regulations and policies regarding filtering. China regarded Google’s decision not to filter its result as the violation of commitments that the company made to abide by when it entered the country in 2006. However, Google denies this by saying that, “This is totally wrong. We're uncompromisingly opposed to the politicization of commercial issues, and express our discontent and indignation to Google for its unreasonable accusations and conducts,"(Olesen). Google has taken a balancing act. The company is leaving behind its research and sales division. Its map services, Gmail services and a free advertiser-supported music portal are still continuing in the country. Following the removal of Google censorship, the Chief Legal Office of Google, David Drummon, says that, “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”(Google stops censoring search results in China ). The horn between Google and China also added some souring ties between Washington and Beijing over Taiwan, Tibet and other issues. In this regard, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said that this accident is an individual action, which should not harm the China-U.S. relations. (Google, China Battle over Hong Kong) Google is being respected, all over the world, by its action for supporting freedom of expression, which is the most basic of human rights. However, the withdrawal of China will have intense negative affects in long-term for Google. China has the world largest population with an estimated amount of 350 million Internet users. References: Drummond, David. 1 December 2010. . Google stops censoring search results in China. 23 March 2010. 21 April 2010 . Google 'may pull out of China after Gmail cyber attack. 13 January 2010. . Google, China Battle over Hong Kong.23 March 2010. 18 April 2010 . How Censorship Works in China: A Brief Overview . 18 April 2010 . Olesen, Alexa. 22 March 2010. 19 April 2010 . Rummo, John. 24 February 2010. 18 April 2010 . Taylor, Richard. 6 January 2006. 19 April 2010 . Zetter, Kim. Threat Level. 14 January 2010. 20 April 2010 . Read More