On January 12, we
announced
on this blog that Google and more than twenty other U.S. companies had been
the victims of a sophisticated cyber attack originating from China, and that
during our investigation into these attacks we had uncovered evidence to suggest
that the Gmail accounts of dozens of human rights activists connected with China
were being routinely accessed by third parties, most likely via phishing scams
or malware placed on their computers. We also made clear that these attacks and
the surveillance they uncovered—combined with attempts over the last year to
further limit free speech on the web in China including the persistent blocking
of websites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Docs and Blogger—had led
us to conclude that we could no longer continue censoring our results on
Google.cn.
So 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, 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. 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 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, 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. 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.
Posted by David
Drummond, SVP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer
