Welcome to www.google.hk

I had thought for awhile that Google might pull something like this and try to keep their presence by bouncing off their uncensored .hk domain.  I’m curious to see what happens next.  Will www.google.com be blocked outright on the Mainland? (it was intermittently blocked in the past) and what will that mean for the .hk domain?  Will internet controls be extended into Hong Kong because of a Google transfer?

* update – it’s official

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.

Google also has a real-time tool highlighting the status of all of their services in China.  As of 21 March 2010:

 
Probably worth another look in a week or two.

Like I’ve said before , I think that Google services an essential tool if one wants to be part of the global conversation.  Right now, it looks like .hk is maintaining that tool for the Mainland…but it could very well just suffer the same fate as .com or .cn.

At the risk of sounding sensationalist sensationalist to say, the Great Fire Wall is looking more like the 21st century equivalent of the Iron Curtain.  

Technorati Tags: censorship, china, google, hong kong, internet

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What I don’t think is being discussed enough in media is the simple notion that Google was hacked…apparently numerous times and that some of these attacks were directed toward their source code. Severs with Google’s secretive source code and other internet tech secrets based in the backyard of the world’s largest internet police and patriotic hacking community is not an ideal situation.

While Google’s main argument is very palatable to the Western community, I fear that it could be a really bad move in terms of drumming up support in China.  The CCP has shown again and again that they are the master of PR spin in their playground.

While Google does have it’s supports in China, it looks like a lot of netizens are not too pleased with the censorship dimension of Google’s argument.  From danwei.org (keep in mind that it is a net poll).

"Will Google’s exit from China affect your use of the Internet?" more than half of respondents, 55.6% (9,767), selected "no," while the remaining 45% (7,801) said "yes.’ In response to the second question, "Which search tool do you use most frequently," 73.2% (12,901) of respondents said Baidu and 23.6% (4,153) said Google, which may be the reason that over half of respondents said that Google’s exit will not affect their use of the Internet. The remaining 5% selected Tencent and four other search engines. In response to the third question, "Do you think that the Chinese government should accept Google’s conditions," 70.4% (1,449) selected "no, they shouldn’t," while 29.6% (610) selected "yes, they should."

The  CCP PR spin wizards haven’t even jumped into the fray yet either.

Personally, I think Google should be focusing on their depth and frequency of the hack attacks.  You can’t wind domestic Chinese support (which they need more than international support) by stroking human rights and censorship.  I’ve noticed that entities involved in cyber-crime such as Infowar Monitor (the fellows who uncovered GhostNet ) are always wary of directly pointing the finger at the CCP/PLA which is widely believed to offer support (in some capacity) to numerous malicious activities directed at companies and governments around the world.  They choose instead to be rather ambiguous with claims that the attack originated ‘somewhere’ in China.   Google seems to have put it all on the line, and if this does turn into a nasty PR storm then it could be an opportune time for someone to make a full disclosure regarding the exact origins of such attacks.  You’ve come this far, and if the CCP PR machinery gets up too speed, you might as well go all the way.  Go big or go home.

Organ Grinder with monkey: “Ah Google, go for the face!”

I’m not sure the netizens in China are aware of the bad PR they receive abroad in regards to cyber-crime.  Substantiated or not, this reputation is beginning to stick and doesn’t bone to well for a country dreams of IT and tech glory.  I would imagine too that it is harder to defend cyber-crime that it is too defend local human rights and censorship laws.  If there is one thing that really irks China and creates a great PR opportunity, it is continual lecturing and scolding about human rights. 

Technorati Tags: censorship, china, cyber-crime, ghostnet, google, hacking, human rights, intellectual property

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Google is annoyed…pissed is probably an more appropriate description.

Some of my thoughts.

While their human rights dimension is probably smoke-screen whipped up for Western fans, Google is making a move that all companies would balk at…standing up to the CCP. 

How I read it.

Google:  “Enough is enough.  Stop hacking our stuff”.

Regardless of the absence of altruism, I appreciate the back-bone, especially when the past few years have seen substantial increases ( Green Dam , Olympic censorship, Facebook, Youtube, IMDB and Twitter) in the strength of government internet controls.  Some one big needed to thrown the gauntlet down.

Still, doubt remains whether Google will follow through and pull the plug.  However, they appear fairly adamant in their statement that the status quo is unacceptable.  If they do, it’s big…huge. 

Google Search, including all of their increasingly essential peripherals (Map, Scholar, Documents, Gmail, Calendar and anything else they have up their sleeve) will not be easily accessible in any form in a country with approximately 350 million internet users and growing.  I feel awful for my friends (both local and expat) on the Mainland .  The Mainland internet world is already incredibly restrictive and isolating sphere to live within and the absence of any form of Googling would create quite a incompatible internet experience. While there will always be ‘alternatives’ Google is becoming, or has already become (like it, or not) an essential cannot-do-without part of the internet.

If China wishes to continue on their road to global leadership, then it has to participate in the global conversation.  Unfortunately for China, that international conversation means using Google.  Without it,  one may see development of a parallel internet community, increasingly cut off from the rest of the world in both in terms of internal accessibility (what one can accesses and use while in China) and external accessibility (what one can access about China from outside the Mainland).    James Fallows calls it yet another move toward a Chinese version of a “Bush-Cheney” era.  It fits with a “you are either with us, or against us” mentality that seems to be brewing harder (especially with continued economic confidence in regards to that country’s performance during the recession).  I also wonder what this will do to China’s ambitions to become a world leader in IT. As an IT professional on shanghaiexpat.com forums lamented “Why do I continue working in this country?”    

Interesting story and I’m keen to see it unfold further.  

Photos from Google headquarters in Beijing.

Technorati Tags: censorship, china, google, hacking, intellectual property, internet

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