Google walks a fine line on China censorship

As Google waits for word from the Chinese government whether it will be allowed to continue running a Web business in that country, the company says it didn't surrender to Chinese censorship demands -- it stood up to censorship.

As I write this post, it's Wednesday morning at Google's California headquarters, but it's past midnight Thursday in Beijing, and Google's license to operate a Chinese Web site expired.

I have a query in to Google to find out whether the license will be renewed.

Google walks a delicate line with the Chinese government, which requires Web sites operating in that country to submit to censorship regulations. Google's position is that it's trying to abide by the law without actually censoring content. Until recently, it redirected Chinese searchers to its uncensored Hong Kong search engine, google.com/hk. The company was notified by Chinese government officials that redirect was unacceptable, so late Monday Google announced a new strategy: Putting a link on Google.cn pointing people to google.com/hk.

I described the step in a blog Tuesday as a surrender to Chinese censorship. "In so doing, the search giant replaces it's famous "Don't be evil" slogan with, "It's okay to be a little bit evil."

Google took issue with my description of their action as a "surrender." In fact, the company said it's standing up to censorship, because the complete, uncensored content of Google will continue to be available to Chinese users.

That's an important point.

A company spokesman also sent me links to several Chinese blogs, which the spokesman said urge Google to find a way to keep its Web site going in China. One blog says Google is an important link between China and the West, and shuttering Google in China would be a step back to the bad old isolationist days of 30 years ago. The blogs are in Chinese, which I don't read, so I can't verify the accuracy of Google's description of the content. Look for yourself: First blog, second blog, third blog, fourth.

Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research, told my colleague Sharon Gaudin that Google hasn't changed its position on censoring content. "Censorship was Google's line in the sand. It has not crossed it," Gottheil told Sharon. "Google did what it said it was going to do. It stopped censoring."

I'm grateful to Google for contacting me to respond to my earlier blog, and allowing me to clarify their position. I'm not going to retract my earlier blog post, but I'm not going to defend it either. Google has given me a lot to think about, and that's what I'm going to do.

Even a symbolic gesture of compliance with unjust law is wrong, and it's arguable that's what Google is doing with Chinese censorship. That's why I wrote the blog I wrote Tuesday. I'm uncomfortable with Google's solution, but the alternatives don't seem to be any better.

What do you think? Did Google stand up to censorship, or did they defy it? And do you read Chinese? Is Google accurately describing the contents of those blog posts?

Update, 1:24 pm EDT: Google says its search services are partially blocked in China, but has no reason to believe it has anything to do with censorship. Google said in an e-mailed statement: "It appears that search queries produced by Google Suggest are being blocked for mainland users in China. Normal searches that do not use query suggestions are unaffected. We have updated our China status page with the latest information."

Mitch Wagner is a freelance technology journalist and social media strategist.