Google backtracks on Chinese anti-censorship feature (Wired UK)

Google backtracks on Chinese anti-censorship feature (Wired UK):

By Liat Clark 04 January 13

Google appears to be backtracking on its once unshakeable anti-censorship stance, after removing a feature from its Chinese site designed to help users avoid getting cut off from the internet.

The feature -- which flagged up a warning message whenever a user began typing a censored word, then redirected them to a help page that explained how to avoid being cut off from the web -- appears to have been disabled some time between 5 and 8 December 2012, reports GreatFire.org.

The anti-censorship feature only came into being in June 2012, at which time it was almost immediately blocked by China. Google retaliated by embedding the function into the html of its start page, thus rendering it permanent, bar a total Google block. And on 9 November 2012, that's just what the Chinese authorities did. The site was blocked for around 24 hours and censorship of Gmail was stepped up considerably thereafter.

"It may have been an instance of the government showing off its power to Google and using it as a leverage in their negotiations," speculates GreatFire.org. "In the end, Google may have decided that providing a restricted version of Google Search and a slow but usable Gmail to Chinese users is much better than being completely cut off."

Google launched Google.cn back in 2006 and has been exchanging threats with the Chinese authorities ever since. The search engine attempted to tread a fine line between keeping the authorities and its users happy, but by 2010 tensions had escalated exponentially. Google announced it would no longer censor its search results in China, but instead redirect traffic to its uncensored Hong Kong site, following a cyber attack that it claimed originated in China.

At the time, Sergey Brin commented that Google would continue in its aim to preserve "the principles of the openness and freedom of information on the internet". Meanwhile, however, China's Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong asserted that Google should step in line with the law or "pay the consequences".

"What needs to be shut down will be shut down, what needs to be blocked will be blocked," she said at the time.

Google might appear to be selectively abiding by the web's freedom of information motto, but it has done more than some in challenging China's stranglehold on internet freedoms.

The actions do, however, echo Brin's despondence with the situation as relayed to the Guardian in April 2012. He said that somewhere between the rampant censorship and ongoing global cyberwars, he had been proven wrong in his belief that no country could restrict the internet for too long. "I thought there was no way to put the genie back in the bottle, but now it seems in certain areas the genie has been put back in the bottle," he said.

It may just be that Google has also come to the realisation that with its meagre five percent marketshare in China -- compared to competitor Baidu's 74 percent -- it will not be able to achieve much when it comes to making a dent in the country's censorship policies, nor the public's access to information. You have to be in the game to win it, so perhaps the search giant is opting to shelve its futile cat and mouse game with China for a while, and play ball instead.

This could make a lot of sense, particularly since some commentators view Google's anti-censorship as nothing more than a self-congratulatory course of action that harms usability more than improving it.

When news first emerged about the feature, sociologist Tricia Wang commented: "I don't see how this actually reaches their goal. First it only antagonises the government more, and thereby could make it even harder for the existing user base to access Google. So it could be counterproductive. Second, it's targeting people who are already their existing users, so they're preaching to the preachers."

Essentially, no one is going to stick with your service if it keeps getting them booted off the internet or bothering them with pop-ups telling them things they already know. Competitors don't come with these irritations, because they've already allowed themselves to be censored -- that might not be in-keeping with Google's morals, but it makes for a far better user experience. When Wired.co.uk spoke to a few Chinese residents about the disabled Google feature, they were not even aware of it because they used VPNs, demonstrating Google might not be taking into account just how savvy its users are at all.

Google's apparent appeasement of the Chinese authorities might also have something to do with its potential new deal with Chinese search engine Qihoo. The latter launched 16 August 2012, and by early December -- around about the same time Google apparently disabled its anti-censorship feature -- reports emerged that the new player in town had begun eating into Google's market share. By late December, rumours began circulating that the two would join forces to take on dominant Baidu, and on 4 January that deal was reportedly near completion. The news caused ABR Investment Strategy to alter its 2013 search revenue estimates substantially from $62 million to $90 million (£39 million to £54 million). If Google wanted to secure that deal and ensure the permanence of any long-term strategy at all, it probably assumed it should tow the line -- at least for a little while.

Wired.co.uk contacted Google for comment but had not heard back at the time of publishing.

TODAYonline | Technology | Google to downgrade pirate sites in search results

TODAYonline | Technology | Google to downgrade pirate sites in search results:

Updated 11:24 AM Aug 12, 2012

LOS ANGELES - Google is altering its search results to de-emphasise the websites of repeat copyright offenders and make it easier to find legitimate providers of music, movies and other content.

The move is a peace offering to Hollywood and the music recording labels. This year, Google joined other Silicon Valley heavyweights to help kill legislation that would have given government and content creators more power to shut down foreign websites that promote piracy.

The Motion Picture Association of America issued a lukewarm response, saying it was "optimistic" the change would help steer consumers away from piracy.

"We will be watching this development closely - the devil is always in the details," MPAA senior executive president Michael O'Leary said in a statement.

Next week, Google will start using "valid copyright removal notices" to rank its search results, according to a Friday blog post by Google's senior vice president of engineering, Mr Amit Singhal.

Google typically ranks websites based on how many other sites link to them, on the belief that sites that get more links are more trustworthy and useful. But Google also regularly tweaks its formulas to reflect special circumstances.

In this case, sites with high numbers of copyright-removal notices may get bumped down in rankings. In effect, that will help users find legitimate sources of content without removing any pages from its results completely. Google did not elaborate on what it considers to be valid notices.

Google's icy relationship with content creators has thawed slightly.

Last month, Google said it would offer a US$50 (S$62) -per-month TV package over a super-fast fiber network in a Kansas City test bed. The package would offer mainstream channels including Nickelodeon.

Google, which is based in Mountain View, California, also sells movies and music through its Google Play store on mobile devices that use its Android operating system.

But a US$1 billion copyright lawsuit filed by Viacom against Google's YouTube in 2007 was re-instated by a federal appeals court in April after a lower court threw it out.

And last week, court papers showed that the Authors Guild is demanding Google pay US$750 for each of the 20 million books it has scanned in a 7-year-old case. AP