Google considers future in China after hacking episodes

Google will stop censoring its search results in China and may pull out of the country completely after discovering that computer hackers had tricked human-rights activists into exposing their email accounts to outsiders.

The change of heart heralded a major shift for the internet’s search leader, which repeatedly said it would obey Chinese laws requiring some politically and socially sensitive issues to be blocked from search results available in other countries.

The acquiescence had outraged free-speech advocates and even some shareholders, who argued Google’s cooperation with China violated the company’s “don’t be evil” motto.

The criticism had started to sway Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who openly expressed his misgivings about the company’s presence in China.

But the tipping point only came when Google recently uncovered hacking attacks launched from within China.

The apparent goal was gathering information about dozens of human rights activists trying to shine a light on the country’s censorship and other secretive policies.

Google officials said they plan to talk to the Chinese government to determine if there is a way the company can still provide unfiltered search results in the country.

If an agreement can’t be worked out, Google is prepared to leave China four years after opening an office there to put itself in a better position to profit from the world’s most populous country.

“The decision to review our business operations in China has been incredibly hard, and we know that it will have potentially far-reaching consequences,” David Drummond, Google’s top lawyer, wrote in a blog posting.

Abandoning China wouldn’t put a big dent in Google’s earnings, although it could crimp the company’s growth as the country’s internet usage continues to rise.

Google, based in Mountain View, California, said its Chinese operations account for an “immaterial” amount of its roughly 22 billion US dollars in annual revenue.

Although Google’s search engine is the most popular worldwide, it’s a distant second in China, where the homegrown Baidu.com processes more than 60 % of all requests.