Google Facing Backlash: China Unicom Scraps Google From Android Phones
Another turn in Google China Saga. China Unicom reportedly will not be using Google search engine on its smartphones due to the latter’s decision not to censor search results in China.
On the other hand, Google is stepping up its campaign to draw more companies and the US Government into putting pressure on China for alleged human rights violations in that country.
Unicom is working closely with handset manufacturing firms to develop Android phones. The Financial Times reports that Unicom will not interfere in the matter of an alternative search engine and will leave the decision to those manufacturers.
The Financial Times quotes Unicom President Lu Yimin as saying, "We are willing to work with any company that abides by Chinese law. ... We don't have any cooperation with Google currently.”
The China Unicom Android phones decision has come soon after Google Inc. declared not to censor search results in China. On 22 March, Google stopped censoring its website in China. It shifted its search services to an unfiltered Hong Kong site, which China criticized as "totally wrong." On 12 January, it declared its unwillingness to censor content after it complained of cyber attacks in China. It alleged that e-mail data of some human rights activists had been hijacked in a "highly sophisticated attack."
Thereafter, there has been a series of discussions and debates on this issue; the matter has reached the ears of the US government, some of whose officials have even championed Google's cause and are planning to propose policies to protect the US Internet businesses in other countries, particularly China.
However, not every company thinks like Google. Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of the Search Engine Land, pointing to Google, says "Just because the situation got bad for you doesn't mean it's bad for everybody else.”
Whereas, there are a few others who have agreed with Google’s decision, including Ed Black, CEO, Computer & Communications Industry Association, who says "A lot of businesses around the world are now realizing they have to think through and figure out how to respond to these kinds of controls—not just in China but in other parts of the world. What Google has done is made them realize they may be facing a fork in the road that they better start planning for."
Even GoDaddy.com is no longer willing to sell new web domain names in China, as it is dismayed with Chinese Government’s policies, which, it says, are meant to tighten the noose around its web-savvy nationals. Go Daddy's general counsel Christine Jones says, "We don't want to be an agent for the Chinese government."
