Google Claims Error is Disguised Attack

Tech professionals worldwide are watching an epic ping pong game between Google and the Chinese government. The two giant forces are colliding in a “he said, she said” argument of playground proportions. Each says the other created problems for people who were trying to access their Gmail accounts recently. Google denies any error on their end and assert the powers that be in China are the culprits. A Google spokesman relayed, “Relating to Google, there is no [technical] issue on our side. We have checked extensively. This is a government blockage carefully designed to look like the problem is with Gmail.” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu responded to reporters by saying, "We do not accept such accusations." Chinese censorship of internet content is nothing new. This seems to be the latest round in the government’s efforts to prevent a human rights movement from spreading through the country. Social media sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have long since been banned. Recently LinkedIn was down for a few days because it allowed citizens to read and post Tweets when government officials feared protesters were planning a “Jasmine Revolution.” The “Great Firewall of China” has blocked content relating to the ongoing uprising in the Middle East. Google claims this snafu smells of similar intent. On March 11 Google posted a blog saying it had "noticed some highly targeted and apparently politically motivated attacks against our users. We believe activists may have been a specific target." This isn’t the first time Google has caught the Chinese government with its hand in the Gmail cookie jar. In January of 2010 Google found that it was among 20 other companies under attack by sophisticated hacks originating from China. At first they were thought to be targeting intellectual property but instead it was a plot to harvest emails to and from human rights activists. This year dozens of arrests were made in February after a call to join a jasmine revolution anonymously appeared online. After the attack last year Google relocated its operations to Hong King which regulates content and filters under a different standard than main land China. When they made the move, Google's chief legal officer, David Drummond said, "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." Google is not elaborating on its intentions for following up on this incident while they continue to investigate. It seems to some they should just walk away from the childish tug of war until the Chinese government is ready to cooperate. It’s hard to walk away from a market of 1,331,460,000 potential ad clickers though even if it means a little moral compromise.

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By Heather Fairchild - Heather is a multimedia developer with experience in web, film, photography and animation as well as traditional fine arts like painting and sculpting. In addition to writing for TechCareersBlog.com, she is co-founder of design and promotion company, Creative Kazoo with fellow Nexxt blogger, Staci Dennis. Heather’s spare time consists of making puppets, teaching Sunday School, building Legos and doing science experiments with her children.