In March, 2010, Google Corporation decided that it would no longer continue censoring the contents of Google in China, as required by that country’s government. Earlier attacks on the privacy of the Google network led to this decision, including evidence that the Gmail counts of human rights activists in China were being accessed. The company’s decision redirected users in mainland China to uncensored searches delivered via servers in Hong Kong.
“Figuring out how to make good on our promise to stop censoring search on Google.cn has been hard,” Google said in its public statement. “We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement.”
CCS was an early supporter of Google’s unwillingness to abide by Chinese censorship and welcomes this decision.