China decides to overlook Google censorship spat

The Chinese government today renewed Google's Internet Content Provider license, allowing it to keep running its services in the country. The clearance followed a change by Google to its policy of redirecting traffic to its unfiltered Hong Kong site that officials warned would likely see Google's services forced out of the country. The company now instead simply takes customers to a special landing page where they have the option of visiting Google Hong Kong if they want to search.

Google claimed to have been put in the position after it discovered hacking attempts meant to get information about Chinese dissidents, which it believed might have been used to silence opposition. The government had adamantly denied any involvement, but Google had traced the hacks to a school sometimes used as a recruiting base for China's cyberwarfare efforts.

The possibility of a forced departure from China had potential repercussions for Google's mobile phone plans. China Mobile, the country's government-backed carrier, is officially using a variant of Android known as Open Mobile System. Without an Internet Content Provider license, the phones could potentially have been neutered as they would have had to switch search engines and disable many of the built-in features if the OS was to remain at all.

Other Google-reliant phones, such as Apple's iPhone, could also have been affected as they would have to either stop using certain services or switch the defaults away to alternatives like Bing or Yahoo.

By Electronista Staff