So Long Dalai Lama: Google Adapts to China

Free-speech advocates continue to reproach the world’s technology and media giants for ready cooperation with the Chinese government’s moves to censor the internet. Yahoo offered up information about users’ email accounts that led to the convictions of so-called dissidents in 2003 and 2005. Microsoft pulled the plug on a major blog that drew the ire of Chinese censors. Cisco sold equipment that aided Beijing in barring access to sites it deemed unacceptable. No company, however, has served the purposes of restriction more actively than Google, which unveiled a new engine tailored specifically for China – Google.cn. Before, users could hit on blocked links and detect government censorship. Now Google.cn strives for an illusion of freedom. For example, a search for the “Republic of China” does tell you about Taiwan, but provides information dating from 1912 to 1949, before the Communists had gained power. Likewise, the single photo of the Dalai Lama shows a young man greeting senior officials before 1959. More blatantly, the search engine hides recent history: A search for photos of Tiananmen Square replaces the iconic image of a man blocking a row of tanks, with soldiers raising the national flag and happy tourists taking snapshots. Google.cn is an innovative search engine – but only in its capacity to rewrite history. – YaleGlobal