A Chinese woman walks past the Google logo at the Google China headquarters in Beijing, China
Google has not renewed its licence to be an "internet content provider" in China, signalling the end of its ambition to provide search and other internet services inside the country's "Great Firewall" which filters out content deemed sensitive by its government.
The annual licence, which is issued by the Chinese government, expired at the end of March. Holding an ICP licence is a prerequisite for providing web and internet searches originating inside the Chinese mainland – although it can still function from Hong Kong, where it moved its main search facility to google.com.hk at the end of last month.
However certain services such as Google Maps are understood still to be hosted on google.cn, though they are being transferred as the company exits the mainland for its internet services.
Google can however still conduct research and development on its Android phone and other software inside China, as well as selling advertising to be carried on the Google search engine and associated pages.
The company announced in January that it would cease to self-censor searches to Chinese users following what it viewed as targeted attacks against Chinese dissidents using its Google Mail service, and hacker-led incursions into its internal networks.
Google started operations in China in January 2006, censoring its search results to omit pages that the government has declared "sensitive" – usually relating to dissidents.
Google may seek to raise the problems it has experienced with censorship as a trade issue with the US State Department, which has been sympathetic to its complaints.
Facebook, the video service YouTube and the microblogging service Twitter are also blocked by the Chinese government firewall, though users with technical knowledge can buy online services called virtual private network (VPN) connections, which allow their systems to tunnel through the blockade.
source : http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/apr/01/google-china-licence-expires
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Google China headquarters in Beijing. Photograph: Ng Han Guan/AP |
The annual licence, which is issued by the Chinese government, expired at the end of March. Holding an ICP licence is a prerequisite for providing web and internet searches originating inside the Chinese mainland – although it can still function from Hong Kong, where it moved its main search facility to google.com.hk at the end of last month.
However certain services such as Google Maps are understood still to be hosted on google.cn, though they are being transferred as the company exits the mainland for its internet services.
Google can however still conduct research and development on its Android phone and other software inside China, as well as selling advertising to be carried on the Google search engine and associated pages.
The company announced in January that it would cease to self-censor searches to Chinese users following what it viewed as targeted attacks against Chinese dissidents using its Google Mail service, and hacker-led incursions into its internal networks.
Google started operations in China in January 2006, censoring its search results to omit pages that the government has declared "sensitive" – usually relating to dissidents.
Google may seek to raise the problems it has experienced with censorship as a trade issue with the US State Department, which has been sympathetic to its complaints.
Facebook, the video service YouTube and the microblogging service Twitter are also blocked by the Chinese government firewall, though users with technical knowledge can buy online services called virtual private network (VPN) connections, which allow their systems to tunnel through the blockade.
source : http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/apr/01/google-china-licence-expires