Google & China censorship.
I was unsure what to write about today. I wanted to write something in regards to Cuil & how cool their privacy statement actually is. Well, has the potential to be a great pro-privacy search engine… But, to get a dire contrast of what censorship is & what it can actually lead to I needed help from Google.. But, more importantly I needed help to see how the censored web is served..
Ok, so I was board & searching the net on whim. After, reading an article today about how the Chinese government has plans for putting less censorship on its internet web-pipes/tubes thingy in time for the Olympic Games… I wanted to see just how bad Google was with its known cooperation with Chinese officials in helping stamp out dissidence amongst its population.. So, I started where any seeker of knowledge would to answer this type of a question.. Lets go to Google.cn & see what it serves up for known black-balled listings.. “Tiananmen Square”… This should serve up a nice page with nothing really on it. Maybe, it will serve up a page or two & probably not have anything in relation to the actual event.. Maybe, the great firewall would block such a call (No, I’m not using a Proxy located in China for full effect, thats not really the test.. Its more or less to see what Google would serve up & if it would serve a web page for a banned keyword.)….
Search term:
“http://www.google.cn/search?hl=zh-CN&q=Tienanmen+Protest&btnG=Google+%E6%90%9C%E7%B4%A2&meta=&aq=f”
Ok, Cool!!! Wow, if I’m Chinese I can totally view Tiananmen Square stuff from Google.cn to Wiki!! WOW, if i read English great.. If not, we’ll test to see if the translate will work too.. It does. Wonderful, it would appear Google probably servers up content that is otherwise viewed as a threat to the ruling communist party.
“http://translate.google.cn/translate?hl=zh-CN&sl=en&u=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3DTiananmen%2BProtest%26complete%3D1%26hl%3Dzh-CN%26sa%3DX”
Cool, this works too… Hmm. Google has been used as a proxy server in this way. Translated page is passed to Google servers for translation, then served back to the person whom wanted the translation. This is going through Google’s servers in China.. The great Firewall or Google itself & should be blockedI mean its not like Google, I would imagine, would check to see which route the packet has taken to determine if it came from the a western nation & thus serve different content. After, all its not like the Communist Chinese government is trying to improve its image or anything like that to western people.
Lets assume, that the Chinese firewall isn’t a statefull packet inspector & can be bypassed by breaking up the tcp packets into smaller segments & you can screw with such a TCP/IP stack in an operating system like Linux to get desired results. Regardless of latency issues that could arise.. Lets not assume Google nor the Chinese government would do such an act of saying one thing & providing another.. Lets take it to the mobile web search.. Right, I mean how many Mobile devices using Google in China would be coming from a foreign nation & not the people its meant to serve, right? So, if the previous notion is to hold true Google & China are presenting accurate information to all parties, specifically Chinese people, than content served from google.cn & http://wap.google.cn should serve & pass all the same information.
Google & China isn’t presenting something different to Westerners.. is it?
Enter part two of the experiment: Lets examine what a search giant trying to emerge in China from behind Baidu a much more China friendly search engine. Trying to capture that mobile market. I mean its Chinese after all, thus, has that upper hand like most Chinese businesses vs western/outside companies in China. Remember, my train of thought on this one: Mobile market.. More, than likely actual Chinese, not a westerner is using the service.. Lets assume the great firewall & Google are not checking from where the packets are originating from..
search query: “http://www.google.cn/m/search?eosr=on&q=tiananmen+protest&mrestrict=xhtmlonly&suggest=0&sa=X&oi=refinements&ct=res&cd=1″
Chinese search query is 纪录片天安門六四事件 translates to tiananmen protest .
Boom.. The results.. Looks similar to what Google.cn served up.. no images.. But, similar I mean I have a website page.. Lets click & see where it goes..
Google China Censorship
BOOM! Fah-King Google.. Here is the CENSORSHIP! 502 Error.. More commonly known as “Bad Gateway” or Gateway Failure… Look at this bullocks.. Google or Chinese Government actively serves up correct content through its Google.cn from my computer located here in the United States of America(try it yourself).. Through the guess of my methodology (wacky tin-foil hat, maybe?) I get blocked through the mobile Google.cn/m/.. or http://wap.google.cn .
Reasoning behind the block
Well, I have yet to take off my tin foil hat.. So, lets move onto why Google would serve up a correct page for Google.cn and not http://www.google.cn/m/ . The reason is simple, as of right now China is trying to present itself as a strong nation with a governmental structure that is equally as strong. China has stated in the past that it had plans to break down some of Chinese’s firewall & allow for more restricted sites to get access. Granted, China later said it wouldn’t break down the firewall that much & some content wouldn’t be available to western media personal, but, thats not the point.
What I think is happening & with Google’s assistance none the less. They will actively serve web pages that would normally be blocked under older restrictions to western nations, however, China in the end will block content that is perceived as a threat to the communist party to its own people(People living & working within China).
Conclusion
Now, I realize that Google restricting content to the Chinese people isn’t new. Its already been established & noted quiet well. My point to all of this is to expose what I think the rouse actually is: China’s ruling communist party will still block content that is seen as a threat to its strong government & will enlist search engines to deliver inaccurate results(pages that won’t bypass the great firewall, but, will pass the great firewall if originating from a western society) in order to present a facade to the rest of the world. That facade is China is loosening its strangle hold on a lot of content that was once viewed as a threat. Google will make no mention of this, as they really don’t have too. At that same token Google will not serve up content that should otherwise be blocked per demand of the Chinese government to its ordinary citizenry so it won’t loose the ability to operate in China. At that same token Google will serve & pass different content to different localities from its search engine in order to facilitate the facade.
But, note above all else while China will present itself as a less restrictive society during the upcoming Olympic Games it is nothing more than a rouse to garnish support for trade & the belief among its own people & the rest of the world that the communist Chinese’s government can stand open information.
