Google under pressure in China

China Digital Times reports: Google.cn "Very Likely" Replace Uncensored Google.com - Beijing News

CDT cites a blog post by Letters From China pointing out that while Google's representative in congressional testimony said that the censored Google.cn "will supplement, and not replace, the existing, unfiltered Chinese-language interface on Google.com," the reality may soon be quite different. He cites this report in Chinese by Beijing News citing an unnamed source at Google China who confirmed its very likely that all attempts to access Google.com inside China will be automatically redirected to Google.cn. So far no comment from Google directly on this. UPDATE: AP reports that Google has denied having an invalid license. More discussion on the intricacies of the situation here at the Good Morning Silicon Valley blog.
 

Meanwhile, there is more evidence that Google is under political pressure in China to backtrack on its very laudable efforts at transparency. Right now Google shows a warning message at the bottom of each page when results have been filtered - something none of the other Chinese search engines (or Yahoo! search) have come close to doing. CDT points to an article in the China Business Times [cn] that asks: "But the question is, is it necessary for an enterprise that is operating within the borders of China to keep on telling your clients you are following domestic law?... Can Google get away with this?" 

Meanwhile the Beijing News report also points out that the legality of Google.cn's registration license is being challenged.

The plot thickens...

Comments

[Keir Heath]

So.... The implication is that Chinese subjects can't even be informed that the law is being FOLLOWED?! Does this not clearly demonstrate how embarassed and ashamed the regime is with its own laws it makes against the interests of its subjects?

[LfC]

I think the licence issues and redirection issues are quite separate and the Google's clarification does not touch on the latter disturbing "rumour".