Google: It's about money

2006-01-26 07:52

San Francisco - Kowtowing to Chinese censors while defying US lawyers is part of a money-making strategy by internet search powerhouse Google, analysts said on Wednesday.

Silicon Valley-based Google is tailoring tactics to legal rules in the United States and China, the top two internet markets on the planet, according to industry experts.

"Google isn't totally on the side of good," Rebecca Jeschke of the Electric Frontier Foundation told AFP. "It's about money, always."

"There is a ton of money to be made in China and the rules are a little different when there is that much money to be made."

Google agreed to censor websites and content in its search service launched on Wednesday in China while at the same time challenging the US government's request for web search data.

Google's move followed similar actions by rivals Microsoft and Yahoo in co-operating with Chinese censorship.

Republican congressman Chris Smith slammed Google's decision and announced he would lead a February 16 hearing into procedures of US internet companies in China.

"It is astounding that Google, whose corporate philosophy is 'Don't be Evil,' would enable evil by co-operating with China's censorship policies just to make a buck," said Smith, chairperson of a subcommittee on human rights.

"Many Chinese have suffered imprisonment and torture in the service of truth - and now Google is collaborating with their persecutors."

Strange bedfellow

Smith has invited US companies Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Cisco to testify at the hearing.

Google will not offer its e-mail or blogging services in China to avoid accumulating user data that Chinese officials might demand, said law professor John Palfrey, director of the Breckman Centre at Harvard University.

"The world's most advanced search engine is now an uneasy partner, a strange bedfellow, with the world's most sophisticated censor," Palfrey said.

"The test comes with the first clash. Does Google back down when the Chinese tell them to turn over information about searches?"

Google has refused to do that for US lawyers trying to use internet search data to revive an overturned law making it illegal for websites to allow minors access to adult content.

"If Google hadn't been keeping this data, the Department of Justice wouldn't be able to get it," Jeschke said. "If they were really concerned about user privacy, they wouldn't keep the data."

Chinese users could find ways around search filters, Palfrey said.

"There is a long standing tradition of using code to evade censorship in China, so that goes on," Palfrey said. "The trouble is the Chinese government has created the world's most sophisticated censorship machine."

Jupiter Research analyst Joe Wilcox maintained that Google's stand against the Department of Justice protects its US business interests while bowing to the Chinese does the same there.

"The bottom line is, it's about business," Wilcox said.

- AFP