Google Will Stop Rerouting (Censored) Chinese Users to Hong Kong Site
Google has announced that it will stop automatically redirecting Web searchers in China to an uncensored portal in Hong Kong, something they've been doing since March 23 in an effort to get around China's requirement that Google self-censor search results there.
With this move Google hopes to convince Beijing, which did not appreciate the rerouting, to renew Google's operating license in China.
However, Internet free speech is not dead in China, it is just enormously complicated. There is apparently a courageous group of volunteers in China who attempt to bypass censorship by operating under a US IP address and fake name, then translating censored pages from the free internet and rerouting them to the public via social media channels like twitter.
It will be interesting to see whether Beijing will melt to international pressure and renew Google's Internet Content Provider license.
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