Friday, September 19, 2008

Google Stopped Censoring Human Rights Watch in China

Entering site:hrw.org into Google China for a long time resulted in a censorship notice instead of a link to the Human Rights Watch organization (Google went live with a self-censored Google.cn in January 2006). Now when I enter that query into Google.cn, at least here from Germany, I get the real site and no censorship notice anymore. I don’t know when this happened, and why; perhaps Google received an updated blacklist from the Chinese government, perhaps something changed with Google’s censorship algorithm, perhaps Google lobbied for this site to be taken from the list, or something else happened.

Does this mean Google stopped agreeing to censor human rights organizations in China? No. For instance, a search for site:hrichina.org still results in zero pages, along with Google’s Chinese message which auto-translates to “According to local laws and regulations and policies, some search results were not revealed.” The top headlines at that site, Human Rights in China, currently are:

• “Chengdu House Church Files First Suit in China Against Government Religious Authority”
• “Mao Hengfeng, Petitioner on Family Planning Issues, Reports Continued Abuse in Prison”
• “HRIC September Take Action: Put an End to Torture in China”
• “Petitioners Call Sentence Repeal a ’Victory for Civilization,’ Thank International Media”
• “Authorities Relent on Reeducation-Through-Labor Sentence for Elderly Women who Applied for Protest Permit”
• “Action Bulletin: Activist Hu Jia Serving 3 1/2-year Jail Sentence”
• “Action Bulletin: The Earthquake in China”

Also see the Google censorship FAQ.

Google Stopped Censoring ... by Philipp Lenssen | Comments (5)

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