Internet users in China received warning messages
on Friday for hundreds of Google searches after the U.S. web search
giant changed its policy on censorship.
"We've observed that searching for 'peacehall' in mainland China
may temporarily break your connection to Google," said a Google
message in response to one search.
"This interruption is outside Google's control," the message said.
Peacehall is the name of a well-known Chinese dissident website
based in the United States.
At least 450 other search terms in Chinese and English generated
similar warning messages on Friday, online activist Wen Yunchao
reported on Twitter.
Before Friday, Google had given only vague warnings that some
search results were not shown, saying "This webpage is not available"
or "The connection was reset."
Its new policy means that terms banned on the internet in China
are revealed more openly, potentially embarrassing government
censors.
Google said it analysed 350,000 popular searches in China and
found that when Chinese users entered banned terms, they were usually
blocked from Google for at least one minute.
"We've noticed that these interruptions are closely correlated
with searches for a particular subset of queries," Alan Eustace,
Google's senior vice president, said in a Google blog post.
"So starting today we'll notify users in mainland China when they
enter a keyword that may cause connection issues," Eustace said.
"By prompting people to revise their queries, we hope to reduce
these disruptions and improve our user experience from mainland
China," he said.
A search for the Chinese character for river, which is also the
surname of former leader Jiang Zemin, spurred another warning
message.
Jiang's name has been linked with online rumours of factional
in-fighting in the ruling Communist Party ahead of a leadership
change this autumn.
Other problematic Google searches included the Dalai Lama,
jasmine, rightist, People's Park, square, 1989, June 4, Egypt and
Tunisia, Wen reported.
Google has diverted its Google.cn site to a Hong Kong site since
January 2010, after saying the company had been the target of a
sophisticated cyber-attack originating in China.
In response to the attack, Google said it would stop abiding by
Chinese censorship requests that it had honoured since opening its
China-based search site in 2006.
China's estimated number of internet users has mushroomed in
recent years to more than 500 million, or about 40 per cent of the
country's population.
The government and internet firms employ thousands of online
censors, and block access to Twitter, Facebook and other
international social media services.
Its surveillance tools include keyword filters and close
monitoring of micro-blogs and phone numbers used by known activists.
