Among other things, the First Amendment of the U.S Constitution guarantees the right to free speech. This basic right ranks high on the personal agenda of both Sergei Brin and Larry Page, the co-founders of Google, the world’s largest search engine firm. Both have vowed to put principles over profits, and it certainly seems that this precept has been followed in the light of Google’s gallant and timely decision to withdraw its service from China.

Google in a sense has challenged the Chinese authorities by stating it is no longer willing to censor search results on its Chinese service. The decision followed a cyber attack on Google aimed at gathering information on Chinese human rights activists.

The clampdown has also been necessitated because of the closure of many local Chinese sites as well as blockage of some of the most popular social networking services hosted overseas – like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Chinese authorities had criticized Google earlier for supplying what they considered ‘vulgar’ content in results.

Don’t Be Evil

In principle, every nation should criminalize malicious activities on computer networks. The results of Google’s investigation found evidence of a highly sophisticated and targeted attack in December which it believes affected at least 20 other firms. These attacks and the surveillance they uncovered, combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web, led Google to conclude that they should review the feasibility of business operations in China.

The Human Rights Watch Group praised the decision and urged other firms to follow suit. Preliminary evidence suggested a primary goal was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Two accounts were accessed but Google believes only account information and subject lines were compromised. Further investigation showed that the accounts of dozens of US, China and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appeared to have been routinely accessed by third parties.

A Regrettable Decision… in Retrospect

Google, Inc. had launched its service Google.cn in China in 2006 in the belief that the benefits of increased access to information for people there outweighed the discomfort in agreeing to censor some results. Google's decision to launch the censored service was highly controversial at the time. It was attacked by campaigners and political analysts and even accused of ‘sickening collaboration’ in a Congressional hearing.

It is expected that the decision to withdraw from China will have only a minimal effect on business results. At best Google had only a third of the search-engine market in China, which was dominated by the Chinese giant Baidu. Although its revenues have continued to rise, many analysts believe it was finding it tough to go on in China. For instance in June Google suffered intensive disruption to search functions and Gmail for over an hour, after authorities told it to scale back search functions.

Google's decision certainly sets an example in terms of a company trying to do what's best for the user, and not just whatever increases the profit margins. Departing the world's most populous country will slow Google's earnings growth and pull down its stock. Google said it was prepared to pull its business out of China, if issues around the surveillance and its decision to stop censoring results could not be resolved with the Chinese Government.

Although the company did not accuse the Chinese Government of being behind the hack attacks, Google said that these attacks, combined with attempts by China over the last year to further limit free speech on the internet led it to conclude that it needed to review the feasibility of its business operations in China.

Findings of the Investigation

Google was able to determine definitively that the attack originated in China, and that the attack was sophisticated in a way that Google does not generally experience. The breaches, however, appeared to be the result of phishing attacks targeted at the users with the aim of stealing their account login credentials.

Following the investigation, the company said it has made changes to its architecture to enhance the security of accounts, but also advised users to take precautions to protect themselves, such as being cautious when clicking on links in e-mails and instant messages.

Whatever the outcome, everyone agrees that Google has taken a bold and difficult step for internet freedom in support of fundamental human rights.


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