Google and China

This year’s relations between Google and the Chinese government seem to have hit a significant bump. After four years of compliance with China’s “Golden Shield Project,” a set of censorship standards often referred to as “The Great Firewall of China,” Google has announced that they will no longer permit censorship on the Google.cn (or any other Google) site.

It begs the question: how much do you trust Google? Or Yahoo!, or Bing, or your ISP for that matter? Google’s stance earlier this year seems to be a positive step towards network neutrality and freedom of information. Do you think it is important that these service providers maintain neutrality in their services? Or, perhaps you would prefer a certain level of non-user applied censorship? Furthermore, do you trust them with your information? For years the people of China didn’t get the same information that those here in the United States were privy to. Google, in that time, was a willing participant in shielding millions of people from information that was otherwise available to the rest of the world.

We aren’t looking to start a debate (so keep it clean), but we’d love to hear our readers thoughts on the free flow of information and how comfortable they are with information available on the web, both personal and public. Please comment below.

More history on Google and China:

Google made the decision to no longer permit the censorship after finding evidence that they have been the victims of hackers trying to access G-mail accounts of human rights activists with histories of anti-Chinese government actions. This came on the heels of harsh criticism from human rights organizations such as Amnesty International. For the last four years, Google has maintained an office and separate search portal for China that has adhered to the many (and ever-changing) rules of Chinese censorship.

While Google is maintaining its corporate office in China for the time being, it is uncertain that it will be open much longer. And while Google.cn continues to maintain Chinese censorship standards, the clock is running out and the question to be asked is ‘will another search engine company fill the void, or will China have to bend to change?’

Only time will tell…