Google Inc. said it may leave China after an investigation found the company had been hit with major cyber attacks it believes originated from the country -- a move that would amount to one of the highest-profile rebukes yet of China by a major U.S. firm. The attack targeted as many as 34Google different companies or other entities, according to two people familiar with the investigation, which has been under way for weeks. Investigators are probing whether the attack is linked to the Chinese government or intelligence services, one person familiar with the investigation said. The attack has piqued the interest of U.S. intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency, this person added. Google said it believed the attackers were trying to access the Gmail accounts of Chinese human-rights activists. A company spokesman declined to identify the other companies affected, saying only that it was in the process of notifying the companies and working with U.S. authorities. For Google to withdraw from China would be an extremely rare repudiation by a Western company of what is almost universally seen in big business as one of the world's most important markets. Even the public suggestion that it is considering such a move is likely to infuriate Chinese authorities. Google said it will be talking with the Chinese government in coming weeks about how it might operate in China without censorship, long a thorn in the side of Western Web concerns operating there. "We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results" on its China Web site, Google.cn," the company's chief legal officer, David Drummond, said in the post. "We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China," Mr. Drummond wrote. Chinese officials couldn't immediately be reached for comment. The government in the past has repeatedly defended its handling of the Internet, and has rejected accusations that China is responsible for cyber attacks against foreign entities. Source: Google warns of China exit over hacking
This is a pretty amazing turn of events, as just recently google was happy to censor on behalf of the Chinese government. Too bad newscorp won't follow suit.
Google have never been happy censoring results in China, they only started self-censoring results because Chinese authorities were forcing censorship on results, causing Google's services to become slow and unreliable. Google have played along and bowed to their wishes for nearly 4 years, looks like they have had enough. Good on them. As for Newscorp, for them to follow suit, the would first have to develop a conscience, then grow some balls... That will never happen. Cheers James
It's bad news.Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, demanded “an explanation†for Beijing of Google’s allegation that its Gmail email system was infiltrated. “The ability to operate with confidence in cyberspace is critical in a modern society and economy,â€
In china mainland baidu is still the king of searching engine but I don't like it at all since there're too many sponsored ranking and unwarrantable ads filling in that search site. Also I don't want to say good bye to google in China (perhaps a quite good news to people outside China), the Chinese gov is making wrong decision.
Does this Internet censorship policy apply only to mainland China or is it also being enforced in SAR regions like Hong Kong and Macau?
Whats going with china, they can't control the internet in their country can they? First restricting .cn registrations and now Google wants to leave.
Hacking cant really all of the story; I am sure there is something else behind the scene. I wont surprise if this is a way for Google to put pressure on somebody.
Till now HK and Macau is OK but who knows what will happen tomorrow? Google.cn now is available, so don't be too sensitive. I declear that it's not the fault of people and netizen of China, they're innocent and have no directly relationship to it, the keypoint is the invisible war between google and gov.
If Chinese and American officials couldn't agree on a solution to cutting their emissions in Copenhagen recently (something far more important in my eyes than censoring search results), then do you really think they can come to a diplomatic solution to this... I think not. I am very very interested to see how this will pan out...
I strongly disagree, the easiest way to cut emissions would be to censor out all bad emission statistics. This is why I believe Google's stand against censorship is justified. Also, lets not forget that its not just Google who will lose if they close shop, China will also lose the best search technology and targeted advertising technology in the world. Which will also have a financial impact. The Chinese government stand to lose face/respect, amongst other things. Even though Google only has a 30% share of search in China, everyone in China will know that the reason Google left, was because the Chinese government censored/filtered political and social information from its citizens. you and me both. Cheers James
no problem cn gov will solve this problem and soon it will back google.cn because it is big business industry.