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Google is censoring the Internet search results of users in China to block news stories critical of the nation’s Communist government.
Researchers at Dynamic Internet Technology found that Chinese Net users who use Google’s news search are prevented from seeing certain newssites that normally would come up in the list of results, the New Scientist reported.
As a matter of routine, state-sponsored Internet service providers block certain newssites from Chinese computers, but Google appears to be aiding Beijing’s censorship by not even bringing up those restricted sites in its search results.
New Scientist reports Google admits to omitting some news sources within China, but the firm says this is meant to improve the quality of the service.
“In order to create the best possible news search experience for our users, we sometimes decide not to include some sites, for a variety of reasons,” says a statement issued by the company. “These sources were not included because their sites are inaccessible.”
The CEO of Dynamic Internet Technology, Bill Xia, accuses Google of complicity with the communist government.
“When people do a search they will get the wrong impression that the whole world is saying the same thing,” he told the magazine.
China restricts Web surfers by identifying their origin through the Internet protocol, or IP, addresses of each machine. Xia’s company has developed a way for Chinese computer users to circumvent the government’s censorship by accessing the Web through computers outside the country.
Google isn’t the only company to alter its search results to please Beijing. New Scientist reports in 2002 Yahoo restricted its Chinese results for queries related to the banned religious group Falun Gong.
As WorldNetDaily reported, Google recently angered critics when it banned a Christian organization’s advertisements promoting its stance against homosexuality, saying the group promotes “hate.”
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