New Google Site Helps Chinese Government Block 'Dangerous' Search Words

One thing that really seems to irk Beijing is the pesky Internet, what with its ability to allow its people to freely discuss any topic. But Google, it appears, is now going to help eliminate part of this "problem" by filtering out "sensitive" topics from its search results on the new Google.cn website, launched last Tuesday.

Google is struggling to apply its mission to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," while meeting both the strict guidelines and vague policies of the Chinese government.

Using the original Google.com website, web surfers in China could sometimes see search results for "Taiwan independence," "democracy," and "Falun Gong," but the hyperlinks would be non-functional. At other times, certain searches might cause their Internet connection to temporarily shut down. This was frustrating to users, says Google, so their new website simply omits these "dangerous" search results altogether. Those same keywords instead now yield more local content, primarily from .cn websites controlled by the Chinese Communist Party or pro-Party organizations.

For example, if you were to search for one of CCP's most feared search terms—"Falun Gong"—on Google.cn, you would see a list of websites hosted by China's state-run media slandering the group. Most everywhere else in the world, the same search would yield a much larger pool of search results, likely topped by Falun Gong's official website, information on genocide lawsuits against Chinese officials, independent reports on the meditation practice, et cetera.

"[Google] create an apparent convenience for users, but then they put this censorship in, so I think it's even more deceiving to provide a service which works well most of the time, but in certain issues it will follow the [Communist] Party line," says Bill Xia, President of Dynamic Internet Technology, Inc., a U.S.-based company famous for products which provide Chinese users access to blocked websites.

Furthermore, Xia wonders if there might be legal ramifications if their censorship policy is found to have violated applicable U.S. law (since the Google.cn server is currently located in California). Said Xia, "I'm sure Google has hired some very capable lawyers."

It is likely that many people searching from within China will not realize their search results are being filtered. Although, to Google's credit, they do provide a message at the bottom, if applicable, that translates roughly as, "In order to follow local laws, some search results are not displayed."

"I think it's even more deceiving to provide a service which works well most of the time, but in certain issues it will follow the [Communist] Party line" — Bill Xia, President of Dynamic Internet Technology, Inc.

Google's Senior Policy Counsel, Andrew McLaughlin, said in a statement, "In order to operate from China, we have removed some content from the search results available on Google.cn, in response to local law, regulation or policy. While removing search results is inconsistent with Google's mission, providing no information (or a heavily degraded user experience that amounts to no information) is more inconsistent with our mission."

While the Google Public Relations team did grant this reporter an interview, they asked that the entire 30-minute conversation be off the record. It can be said, however, that Google probably feels it is doing its best to address a very touchy situation.

In a statement on Google's Blogspot, McLaughlin said, "We are convinced that the Internet, and its continued development through the efforts of companies like Google, will effectively contribute to openness and prosperity in the world. Our continued engagement with China is the best (perhaps only) way for Google to help bring the tremendous benefits of universal information access to all our users there."

Google is not the first Internet company to make concessions to the Chinese government. Yahoo began modifying its Chinese search engine to provide censorship as early as 2002, says Dynamic Internet Technology's Bill Xia. Last year, Yahoo faced international criticism for providing personal information from the Yahoo email account of Chinese journalist and "political dissident" Shi Tao, leading to his arrest and imprisonment by Chinese authorities.

Google hopes to avoid this kind of messy issue, and has decided hold off on opening up their new website to Gmail or Blogger, the latter of which is already inaccessible from within China's "Great Firewall."

In fact, Chinese authorities rely heavily on self-censorship by Western companies doing business in China, because their estimated 30,000 Internet police are scarcely able to monitor all the activity of China's 100 million Internet users. Not only search engines like Yahoo and MSN have censored themselves, but many international news media with offices in China dare not report on "sensitive" issues, for fear of having their websites permanently blocked off.

Many of these large American corporations make the argument that having a limited presence in China is better than no presence at all, and thus make major concessions to the Communist Party.

It remains to be seen what impact companies like Google will have by being in China in their modified form, and whether their presence will indeed be a catalyst for greater freedom and reform. But one thing's for sure: if you want to discuss this issue in China, don't bother trying to read blogs...and don't even think about viewing this article on The Epoch Times website.