CHINA BLOCKS MAIN GOOGLE SITE

[Anonymous]

China ‘blocks’ main Google site
Chinese
authorities have blocked most domestic users from the main Google.com
search engine, a media watchdog said.Internet users in major Chinese
cities faced difficulties accessing Google’s international site in the
past week, Reporters Without Borders said.But Google.cn, the
controversial Chinese language version launched in January, has not
been affected.The site blocks politically sensitive material to comply
with government censorship rules.”It was only to be expected that
Google.com would be gradually sidelined after the censored version was
launched in January,” Reporters Without Borders said in a
statement.”Google has just definitively joined the club of Western
companies that comply with online censorship in China,” the
organisation said.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.’Principled approach’A spokeswoman for
Goggle in Beijing said that the problem was under investigation.   

GREAT FIREWALL OF CHINA
Foreign websites covering politics and sensitive issues are blocked,Chinese
internet providers face strict censorshipWebsites, forums and blogs
must officially register and are monitored,China’s internet ‘police’
thought to number 50,000 censors

On Tuesday, Google
co-founder Sergey Brin defended his company’s decision to launch the
censored Google.cn service, a move which drew heavy criticism.”We felt
that perhaps we could compromise our principles but provide ultimately
more information for the Chinese and be a more effective service,” he
said.”Perhaps now the principled approach makes more sense.”In addition
to Google, US companies Microsoft, Yahoo and Cisco Systems have also
been accused of accommodating China’s demands on censorship in return
for access to its huge internet market.The Chinese government’s
internet filtering is some of the most sophisticated in the
world.Content considered to be a threat, including references to the
Tiananmen Square massacre and notable dissidents, is blocked.Chinese
authorities have also stepped up measures against software designed to
bypass internet censorship, the Reporters Without Borders statement
said. 

[Author]

June 7, 2006 at 11:54 AM