Tag Archives: Cyber attacks

The New York Times reported that Google plans to shut down all operations in China due to assaults from hackers, as well as, China’s attempts to limit free speech online [1]. Although this makes Google sound heroic, it hardly sounds like the truth in its totality. Google is a multinational corporation that has to cater to shareholders, so financial straits are most likely the real reason for the anticipated departure.Google has been cooperating with the Chinese government’s demands for internet censorship for years. In fact, Phillip Lenssen’s blog, blogoscoped, provides some shocking screenshots of how the censorship materializes itself on Google’s China based search engine [2]. After viewing Lenssen’s blog post, it is clear that search engine censorship is probably the least important reason why Google is planning to leave China. With over 1.3 billion people to capitalize off of, there is no reason why human rights trump the prospect of profit. Continue reading →