消息來源: 財經日報 2010-3-22
com/2010/3/23/gb2312_82047.html
A new approach to China: an update
3/22/2010 12:03:00 PM
On January 12, we announced on this blog that Google and more than twenty other U.S. companies had been the victims of a sophisticated cyber attack originating from China, and that during our investigation into these attacks we had uncovered evidence to suggest that the Gmail accounts of dozens of human rights activists connected with China were being routinely accessed by third parties, most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on their computers. We also made clear that these attacks and the surveillance they uncovered—combined with attempts over the last year to further limit free speech on the web in China including the persistent blocking of websites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Docs and Blogger—had led us to conclude that we could no longer continue censoring our results on Google.cn.
So earlier today we stopped censoring our search services—Google Search, Google News, and Google Images—on Google.cn. Users visiting Google.cn are now being redirected to Google.com.hk, where we are offering uncensored search in simplified Chinese, specifically designed for users in mainland China and delivered via our servers in Hong Kong. Users in Hong Kong will continue to receive their existing uncensored, traditional Chinese service, also from Google.com.hk. Due to the increased load on our Hong Kong servers and the complicated nature of these changes, users may see some slowdown in service or find some products temporarily inaccessible as we switch everything over.
Figuring out how to make good on our promise to stop censoring search on Google.cn has been hard. We want as many people in the world as possible to have access to our services, including users in mainland China, yet the Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement. We believe this new approach of providing uncensored search in simplified Chinese from Google.com.hk is a sensible solution to the challenges we've faced—it's entirely legal and will meaningfully increase access to information for people in China. We very much hope that the Chinese government respects our decision, though we are well aware that it could at any time block access to our services. We will therefore be carefully monitoring access issues, and have created this new web page, which we will update regularly each day, so that everyone can see which Google services are available in China.
In terms of Google's wider business operations, we intend to continue R&D work in China and also to maintain a sales presence there, though the size of the sales team will obviously be partially dependent on the ability of mainland Chinese users to access Google.com.hk. Finally, we would like to make clear that all these decisions have been driven and implemented by our executives in the United States, and that none of our employees in China can, or should, be held responsible for them. Despite all the uncertainty and difficulties they have faced since we made our announcement in January, they have continued to focus on serving our Chinese users and customers. We are immensely proud of them.
Posted by David Drummond, SVP, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer
1月12日我們在這里宣布,谷歌和其它逾20家美國公司在一場從中國發起的精密的網絡攻擊中成為了受害者。在對這些攻擊的調查中,我們找到了證據顯示,數十名中國人權主義者的Gmail賬戶被第三方(除了谷歌和用戶自身)有規律地登錄,并很有可能是通過放置在這些用戶電腦中的網絡釣魚陷阱或惡意軟件進行操作。
我們也進一步明確,這些攻擊和通過其顯示出的背后的「監督力量」,和去年中國為進一步限制網絡言論自由的舉動有關——例如中國始終屏蔽Facebook、Twitter、YouTube、Google Docs和Google Blogger。所有這些讓我們決定,我們可能不再會繼續審查Google.cn里的搜索結果。
所以今天早些時候我們停止了對Google.cn上搜索、資訊和圖片搜索結果的審查。現在用戶訪問Google.cn會自動轉到Google.com.hk,我們將在這里以簡體中文提供未審查的搜索結果,這項服務是特別為了中國大陸的用戶設計的,并將通過我們位于香港的服務器提供。位于香港的用戶將繼續接受現有的未經審查的繁體中文服務。由于目前香港服務器的流量增加,以及這些變化本來就復雜的特點,用戶在使用服務時速度可能會下降,并發現一些產品暫時不能使用,因為我們正在將所有的服務轉過來。
我們先前已經承諾將停止在Google.cn上的審查,如何兌現這個承諾對我們來說一直是一個難題。我們希望這個世界上盡可能有更多的人可以使用我們的服務,這里面也包括位于中國大陸的用戶。然而中國政府在談判過程中已經很清楚地表示,自我審查是不可談判的法律性要求。我們相信,在google.com.hk以簡體中文提供未經審查的搜索服務是解決我們面臨挑戰的一種明智的方案——這是完全合法的,而且也將為中國大陸的用戶提供解除更多信息的機會。我們非常希望中國政府尊重我們的決定。我們也將仔細地監控登錄方面的問題,并且創建了這個新頁面。我們會每天規律性地更新這個頁面,讓每個人都可以看到,當前有哪些谷歌服務在中國可以被使用。
至于谷歌在中國的其它業務,我們將會繼續研發部門的工作,也會在當地保留銷售部門,但銷售部門的規模將明顯地部分依賴于中國大陸用戶登錄Google.com.hk的情況。
最后,我們想要澄清的是,所有這些決定都是由在美國本土的谷歌高管推動并執行的,我們在中國的任何雇員都對這些決定,或者應該對這些決定負有責任。自從我們1月份宣布聲明后,他們就一直面臨這不確定性和各種困難,但是他們仍舊一直專注地為我們的中國用戶和客戶提供服務。我們對他們感到深深的驕傲。
本文由David Drummond,谷歌的首席法律代表(Chief Legal Officer)發布。 |