Google’s Search in Hong Kong OK So Far
I love to read propaganda. It’s so entertaining.
Xinhuanet, the top news site in China, reports that “most Chinese Internet users believe they will be OK with a no-Google Internet despite all predictable inconvenience.”
So how does Xinhuanet know that? The site cites a survey by the Global Times newspaper, an affiliate of the state-owned People’s Daily, in which 27,000 Internet users were asked “What’s your opinion of Google pulling out of China?” About 84% said they “don’t care.”
Just read how the government newspaper described why Google decided to re-route users to a search site in Hong Kong that it isn’t censoring (on behalf of the government):
“Google stirred up controversy in the world’s media and on the Internet in January when the company’s chief legal officer, David Drummond, said in a blog that Google might shut down google.cn and its China office due to disputes with the Chinese government and unidentified cyber attacks against its Chinese users.”
You can really tell a lot about the slant of a news story by the language used…”stirred up controversy”…”due to disputes with the Chinese government.” How about discussing why Google’s quitting its search business there: the censorship issue?
It remains to be seen now if China will block citizens’ access to the Google Hong Kong site. For now, it isn’t, according to the The Wall Street Journal.
The way I see it, Google, after threatening to leave China over censorship issues, finally took action because of a cyber attack on Chinese dissident Gmail users – an attack believed to have come from China. That was the last straw for Google.
Why do I care so much about this? The protector in me can relate to Google’s actions. As the owner of a monitoring company, part of my mission is to warn clients of hackers and other threats. You don’t want to let your clients down.