Chinese Newspaper Says Google Censored Its Web Site

Oct 27, 2009 at 2:04pm ET by Matt McGee

Oh, the irony: The People’s Daily, the main newspaper of China’s Communist Party, says Google censored its web site by adding a malware warning to search result listings for the newspaper’s book section.

The paper says the malware warning appeared after it ran an article about a Chinese group that has suggested Google’s book search settlement might violate the rights of Chinese authors. The paper says the malware warning appeared for three days, and claimed that its book section was “maliciously blocked by Google.”

Google called the claims “absolutely incorrect” and pointed out that its malware warnings are generated automatically and without human involvement.

It’s all ironic, of course, due to the long-running battle between Google and China over censorship issues. Usually, though, it’s Google (and others) accusing the Chinese government of censorship, not the other way around. Or, as the Inquirer calls it, this is a case of “wok calls kettle black.”

Matt McGee is the Search Engine Land Assignment Editor, and offers search marketing consulting and training to businesses of all sizes. He blogs at Small Business Search Marketing and HyperlocalBlogger.com.

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ONE COMMENT ON Chinese Newspaper Says Google Censored Its Web Site

kevinpike, October 28th, 2009 at 10:25 am ET:

中国，检查了这一点：

http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&hl=en&sa=1&q=tiananmen+square&btnG=Search+images&aq=f&oq=&aqi=&start=0

o噢等等，你没有得到我不相同的结果

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