Google's split from China: Taking a stand or harming journalists?

Posted by Alexandra Jaffe on March 19, 2010 at 5:05 PM

No Google search: It's an unthinkable scenario for much of the world, but one that China is likely to face next month as the business shuts down its search engine in the notoriously conservative nation. Although Google has not confirmed the pullout, China Business News reported today that the company is likely to announce its decision to remove its search capacities from the nation on Monday.

The decision comes as a response to increasing conflict between the Chinese government and the Internet business. Google suffered an attack on their technological interface in December that has been attributed to hackers based in China, and the search site has been subject to mandatory censorship from the Chinese government.

Google has increasingly come under fire from the Chinese government for providing access the government deems questionable, and in return, Google has strengthened its threat to pull out from the Communist nation.

The company would leave behind it 350 million internet users, an estimated 12 million of which use Google Maps every day, with even more using Google Translate, Scholar, and Gmail for everyday business.

Although Google has lately come under fire for its profit from the aggregation of news articles without compensation to news sites, some believe its decision to withdraw from China is a step in favor of freedom of speech in a country badly lacking that right. Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales expressed his support for Google's decision at Guardian's Changing Media Summit this week.

"It's important to pressure other internet companies to act in the same way," he said. "Internet censorship is a serious infringement of human rights."

China has long been known for its censorship efforts and human rights infringements, and Google has only recently decided to take a strong stand against the country's harsh standards. The withdrawal is expected to take place on April 10th, and after Google is gone its competitor, Baidu, is likely to take over its market share.

But with reporters increasingly using Google and other social media sites for research, as the Chinese government cracks down on or chases away one after the next, it's impossible to say if the quality of Chinese reporting will suffer or flourish.

Sources: BusinessWeek, The Washington Post, Top Rank Blog, TechCrunch