New Approach in China

Original author: David Drummond, SVP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer
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Google announced today that it will no longer censor search results on Chinese Google.cn. In my opinion, this is a very important and bold decision, which is worthy of broad public support. Such a decision seemed impossible yesterday, but Google proved that it is still faithful to the slogan "Don't be evil." I could not go to bed without translating this post from the corporate Google blog:

Like many other well-known organizations, we are constantly faced with cyber attacks of one or another severity. In mid-December, we were subjected to a sophisticated and targeted attack from China on our corporate infrastructure, which led to the theft of Google’s intellectual property. After some time, it became clear that the incident, which at first seemed only a security problem (albeit very serious), was in fact something more.

Firstly, the attack was carried out not only on Google. During the investigation, we found that at least twenty other large companies from various fields of activity (including the sectors of the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemistry) were also attacked. Now we are engaged in the notification of these companies, as well as working with representatives of US government agencies.

Secondly, we have reason to believe that the goal of the attackers was to gain access to the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights defenders. Based on current data, we believe that the attackers failed to achieve their goal. They got limited access to only two Gmail accounts, and were able to find out only technical information (when these accounts were created) and the headers of the letters, but they were not able to access the contents of the letters.

Thirdly, during the investigation, we found out that, regardless of the December attack, dozens of human rights defenders from the USA, China and Europe who are engaged in protecting human rights in China were regularly accessed by third parties. Unauthorized persons did not gain access to their accounts because of Google’s security flaws, but through phishing and malware installed on users' computers.

We have already used the information obtained during the investigation of the December attack to implement architectural improvements that will strengthen the protection of Google and its users. We recommend our users to install well-known antiviruses on their computers, update their operating systems and browsers. Always be careful when you click on the links appearing in instant messengers and letters, and when you are asked to publish your personal information, such as passwords, on the Internet. You can read here about our recommendations. People who want to learn more about these attacks can read the US government report (PDF), the Nart Villeneuve blog, or the GhostNet incident presentation.

We have taken extraordinary steps to publicize information about the December attacks on the general public, not only because the information we dig up affects security and human rights, but also because this information is important in the light of the global discussion of freedom of speech. Over the past two decades, the economic reforms of the Chinese government and the entrepreneurial ability of the citizens of this country have lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese people out of poverty. Moreover, this great nation is now the engine of economic development and progress of the whole world.

We launched Google.cn in January 2006 in the hope that the benefits of expanding access to information for Chinese people and a more open Internet outweigh the discomfort of agreeing to censor some of the results. At that time we dida clear statement that “we will carefully monitor the situation in China, including new laws and prohibitions relating to our service. If we decide that we can no longer achieve the stated goals, we will not hesitate to review our actions in China. ”

These attacks and the information that they revealed, combined with further attempts to restrict free speech on the Internet that we have observed over the past year, have led us to the decision that we should question the possibility of our further activities in China. We decided that we no longer want to censor extradition on Google.cn, so over the next few weeks we will discuss with the Chinese government the conditions under which we can provide uncensored extradition in accordance with Chinese laws, if at all possible. We understand that this is very likely to mean the closure of Google.cn and our offices in China.

The decision to review our working conditions in China was incredibly difficult for us and we understand that it can have very far-reaching consequences. We want to clarify that this step was made by our senior management in the United States, our employees in China, who worked incredibly hard to ensure that Google.cn achieved great success today, were not involved in this decision and did not know anything about it. We are interested in responsible work to resolve the difficult issue raised.

PS I read a hundred comments. I am amazed at the people who scold Google, they say that this is all PR and the company will not go anywhere, will return to China later, etc. etc. You try to make such a decision on a personal level: never give bribes again and pay all taxes (the analogy is direct - you greatly complicate your life and reduce your disposable income), then criticize. Ah, you are already a saint - then okay. When it comes to big money, often many, including the US government, forget about human rights issues in China. Google decided not to put up with this anymore - there are still those who spit in her face. Amazed by such people.

Update:I invite all English speakers to read two posts by Robert Scoble regarding this step by Google, in which he explains why, in his opinion, the company acted boldly and has every chance of really suffering from its decision: Why now Google? and The push and pull of China .

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