I was critical of Google’s decision to operate a censored search engine in China. As I said here, the effect would be to limit access to Google’s main search engine, so that the establishment of google.cn would reduce, not increase, access to information in China.
And so it has come to pass. According to the BBC, China has now blocked Google’s main, uncensored search engine in China:
Google.com, the search engine’s uncensored international site, had previously been available to Chinese web users, but problems accessing the site had been reported across the country recently. It was blocked nationwide on 31 May, the statement said.
The blocking was also being extended to Google News and Google Mail, Reporters Without Borders said.
One response to “Don’t be evil”
But what’s to say that China wouldn’t have blocked it completely <i>anyway</i>? They were likely to at some point. I remain of the opinion that access to some information is better than access to none at all, and at least Google is being honest, and unlike, say, Yahoo!, hasn’t turned in information to get journalists arrested, etc.
Tor is interesting, but if Google can be blocked, surely it can be as well?