Google News Updates

The world's largest registrar of internet domain names said Wednesday that it was pulling out of China in the wake of firm new laws that allegedly will increase government surveillance of web sites.

'There appears to be a recent increase in China's surveillance and monitoring of the Internet activities of its citizens,' said Christine Jones, general guidance for Go Daddy, at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC).
Jones said the new Chinese policies required every website vendor to submit photographs, business information and individually signed forms, as well as their physical address, email address and telephone numbers.

'We didn't want to act as an representative of the Chinese government,' Jones said. 'We can't let them be strong and us be weak all the time. We just have to stop it, and then we'll start offering .CN domain names again.'

GoDaddy.com, which has more than 40 million domain names under management, took the step just two days after Google announced that it was moving its Chinese-language search examination out of mainland China to avoid strict government censorship laws. The move set up a discordant clash with the Chinese government, which has already started to filter search results received from Google's Hong Kong-based Chinese-language servers.

Go Daddy has offered .CN domain names since 2005, and said it would carry on serving its existing websites. However, they, too, are required to submit the latest information or could be shut down by the Chinese government.
'We were advised that domain names of registrants who did not roll as required ... would no longer work,' Jones said.