Google News Updates

In the most recent development in an ongoing standoff with China over censorship, Google has redirected its Google.cn assets to Google.hk, its site in Hong Kong. The move follows reports this morning that Google would declare plans to shut down Chinese operations as early as today.

Google first announced that it was considering pulling out of China in January, writing at the time that it would no longer cut search results at the behest of the Chinese government following a set of cyber attacks targeting human rights activists.


Update: Google has posted the following announcement on their company blog



“Earlier at present we stopped censoring our search services—Google Search, Google News, and Google Images—on Google.cn. Users visiting Google.cn are now being redirected to Google.com.hk, where we are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese, particularly designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong …

… 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 consideration that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement.”

Google notes that this workaround could rapidly be thwarted by the Chinese government, and has thus setup this webpage which keeps track of which services are currently accessible in the country.