TechNewsWorld: Google and the Chinese Government
By Jon Newton
09/22/04 Bill Xia of DIT says that on September 15 a volunteer working with DynaWeb
noticed that Google's Chinese news was returning different results depending on
whether the search was conducted in China or in the United States. Bill Xia, CEO of Dynamic Internet Technology (DIT), a company which runs
services aimed at allowing Chinese people to access unfiltered news, says Google
is helping Chinese authorities to maintain an online "matrix" that keeps people
from finding out what's happening outside the country's borders. DIT was founded in 2001 to provide low-cost, reliable Internet services for
people living under repressive regimes such as China's. DIT's DynaWeb is a
constantly updated, free proxy network designed to circumvent Internet blocking.
Xia told me that on September 15 a volunteer working with DynaWeb noticed
that Google's Chinese news was returning different results depending on whether
the search was conducted in China or in the United States. Blocked Web Sites "We were able to confirm this report through proxies in China," says Xia.
"Search results inside China do not contain news from blocked sites such as
www.epochtimes.com.au." He says the search started with a news.google.com search on the name of a
Chinese poet living in America. In the U.S. it returned three entries, two from
epochtimes.com.au and one from chinesenewsnet.com. But, Xia says, "When we used a proxy in China to simulate the search from
inside China, zero results were returned." The search was made at 5:50 p.m.
Eastern time on September 16. Other keywords were tested as well. Google Responds A Google spokeswoman told me, "In order to create the best possible news
search experience for our users, we sometimes decide not to include some sites,
for a variety of reasons." For example, she said, "they may display improperly
in our service, or be inaccessible to users. We have not included links to a
number of sources that are not accessible to mainland China Internet users." Google and the Matrix That answer does not satisfy Xia. "The Chinese government controls the media
and the military and through them, is able to create a 'Matrix' that hides Web
sites that relate to civil rights and opinions the Chinese authorities don't
want people to see," he says. Xia added, "And of course, these are the only places people can find this
kind of 'forbidden information' and by excluding [it], Google is actively
helping the Chinese government to enhance its 'Matrix.' This exercise is no
different to Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) China's exclusion of oversea sites when words
such as 'Falun Gong' are searched. "I condemn it and urge the public to demand that Google explains how it's
able to justify the practice." Xia also said that he has demonstrated that Google is using geographical
differentiation to display different results to different locations. Chinese Search Engines Google also has a minority share in Baidu.com, a Chinese search engine. "Baidu is the largest independent search engine, but much smaller than the
leading portals Sohu.com and Sina.com," according to Poynteronline, which
continues: "Two years ago, Baidu put itself on the media radar and angered many Chinese
Internet users. China's censors had installed new filtering software to keep
unwanted information out of the country. For [as] yet unclear reasons, Google
was very prominent on the hit list of those new IT-goodies and people who wanted
to Google ended mostly up in the Baidu.com Web site." Internal Google documents obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle reveal that
in Europe Google is the clear search leader, but Asia is "an entirely different
story," the paper wrote. The company's search engine ranked third in Hong Kong
and tenth in Japan. "China is also considered to be particularly tough," according to the
Chronicle. "Many Chinese companies already dominate the search market there. In
June, Google invested a reported $10 million in one of them, Baidu." The Chronicle story also points out that wherever Google has offices, "it
faces a variety of laws. In some cases, that includes filtering Web sites for
illegal content. Google has blocked more than 100 such Web sites in France and
Germany, according to a study by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at
Harvard University. Google insists that it is merely complying with the law and
that the filtering does not affect search results elsewhere in the world." Do It Yourself If you're planning to emulate the DynaWeb search, don't use high-profile
keywords such as "Falun Gong" or "religious freedom" because they'll trigger the
national firewall in China and disconnect you from Google or from the proxy
you're using, depending on where you are and how you're doing the search. "Use dissidents' or writers' names who publish articles or are reported on
oversea Web sites," suggests Xia. He adds, "If you triggered the keyword blocking, you can try to find another
proxy and change your IP by restarting your computer or logging off and logging
back in." If you're Chinese and you're looking for a way to access independent Internet
news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens
circumvent Web blocking outside of China. Download it here.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Google-and-the-Chinese-Government-36818.html
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