Google's Hong Kong move leads to censorship, followed closely by opportunism

What, exactly, would one be blocked from seeing now that the "Great Firewall of China," as it's been dubbed, separates citizens of mainland China from Google? This morning, Betanews used a fabulous Firefox 3.0 add-in tool called ChinaChannel, created by independent developers in Hong Kong, to set up a proxy connection using a China IP address, so we could peruse Google as though we were in China itself. Then using an ordinary copy of Opera 10.51 on the other side, we browsed Google.com.hk -- the server to which Google is now redirecting Google.cn requests -- using our regular US-based connection.

We've used this tool in the past, and we had an easier time obtaining a proxy connection with a China-based proxy. At first this morning, we found proxy servers were frequently denying connection requests, although repeated requests often got through after 10 or more tries. However, sometimes our connection only lasted as long as a minute.

Although Google's PRC service status page reports its Images service is online, we noticed that from time to time, we were not able to obtain image results from searches. Sometimes image results did not appear within regular Web queries, when using the US-based Opera connection to Google.com.hk, the images did appear. Sometimes requests to images.google.com.hk turned up pages with empty frames but active links, as was the case for this unresolved search for pictures of nuclear weapons.

At other times, requests were blocked, using response messages that clearly originated from a China-based ISP, not from Google. And then from time to time, image requests for relatively innocuous subjects, like Sandra Bullock, were processed without trouble.

By mid-morning, however, it appeared the gig was up, as every request for a proxy connection ended up being blocked. ChinaChannel rotates its proxy requests through a list of services (including aiya.com.cn, chinanetcenter.com, and a few services whose names are now blanked out in their "Access Denied" messages) that, at one time, were open. Requests to Aiya were met with this message: "Access control configuration prevents your request from being allowed at this time. Please contact your service provider if you feel this is incorrect."

What we were looking for was evidence to back up Associated Press reports this morning that Chinese censors are filtering -- not blocking, but rather sifting through -- Google searches. The tiny speck of evidence we were able to turn up suggests that China's roadblocks at present are not that sophisticated. Conceivably, state-run ISPs may be blocking (or trying to block) requests specifically to the images subdomain of Google.com.hk. A successful block could result in the "Image results for..." portion of a straight Google Web query, from appearing in the list of results, without the ISP having to block the entire page. It's like filtering, but without the filter.

The unresolved request for pictures of big things blowing up, could be attributed to the roadblock kicking in partway through an IP request that was about to be fulfilled, rather than a filter noticing a specific request for pictures of mushroom clouds.

In any event, it does appear as though China authorities are using crude, but effective, means of limiting access to certain assets. But why not block access to Google entirely? As we found during our brief proxy connection, although Google.cn requests are rerouted to the .HK domain, straight Web searches still go through.

One possible answer may be that an outright block of Google could make Google more popular in China than ever, if only in a symbolic sense. Thwarting access to picture searches keeps Google's boat afloat, while taking the wind out of its sails. Users may be sympathetic to Google's cause, but they'll end up switching to Baidu anyway.

So don't be surprised if, after a few weeks of this "politicalizationalized" standoff (if only Norm Crosby were still with us), the interim outcome is a report of a boost in Baidu market share.

A quick check of Baidu's "Opening-up policy," to borrow a phrase, reveals that certain search requests continue to be directly filtered. Taking a suggestion from engineer Ed Felten, we tried a search for the Buddhist group Falun Gong or Falun Dafa. The response was a connection refusal that our Opera browser processed as a closure -- Baidu hung up on us. And just as before, Baidu would then refuse to process some subsequent requests for innocuous material that it would happily find for us before, such as the aforementioned Sandra Bullock, or for something called "beta news."

However, Baidu would merrily pop back into existence following a search for Deng Xiaoping.

Contrary to popular belief, where there is censorship, there is usually an influx of capitalism. One case in point we stumbled onto this morning was a Web site that offers citizens in China and elsewhere a three-day free trial toward a subscription to a frequently updated list of free proxy servers, which it says will link individuals to services such as YouTube. Yes, now you can overcome the effects of state-run censorship...for a low monthly fee.

Now, I can't speak for the relative effectiveness of online marketing campaigns in the Asia/Pacific region, but I'd have to say that if I were an English-speaking Chinese citizen, I'd be turned off of such a service the moment it presented me with this popup: Purporting to be a link to an auction site, it offered me a chance to bid on the list of active Chinese subscribers to the proxy service, for a starting bid of $1,500.