censorship

Google is expected to announce on Monday that it will withdraw from China on April 10, according to a report in a Beijing-based newspaper that cited an unidentified sales associate who works with the company.

"I have received information saying that Google will leave China on April 10, but this information has not at present been confirmed by Google," the China Business News quoted the agent as saying. The report also said Google would reveal its plans for its China-based staff that day.

A Google representative declined to comment on the report.

Google, which has a significant share … Read more

China and Iran are among the world's top "Internet enemies" tagged by Reporters Without Borders for restricting Internet freedom. But even democratic countries like Australia and South Korea are raising concerns.

The fight to restrict freedom is increasingly being fought on the Internet as certain governments continue to censor what content their citizens can see online and try to target those who resist such efforts. The current skirmish between Google and China over filtering search results is just one example.

But it's not only repressive regimes like China that are the culprits, according to a report (… Read more

The Chinese government has warned Google business partners to prepare for a day when they can't use Google services such as a search bar on their Web sites, according to a New York Times report Sunday.

Google has significant if not dominant share of the search market in China, but decided after a hacking attack that targeted human rights activists to cease censorship even if it means shutting down its Chinese operations.

If Google did shut down those services, business partners such as Sina.com.cn and Ganji.com that offer a Google-powered search box would have to either … Read more

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Saturday called for Internet regulations and demanded that authorities crack down on a news Web site he accused of spreading false information, according to media reports.

"The Internet cannot be something open where anything is said and done. No, every country has to apply its own rules and norms," Chavez said during a televised speech, according to reports by Reuters and the Associated Press.

Chavez singled out Noticiero Digital, a Venezuelan news Web site he said falsely reported the assassination of one of his ministers.

"We have to act. We are going … Read more

A Chinese government minister has issued a stern warning to Google in the event the company stops filtering search results at its Chinese Web site: Follow our laws, or else.

Speaking to reporters at the National People's Congress on Friday, Chinese Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong said he hopes Google will respect China's rules and regulations. But, according to several press reports, he cautioned the company: "If you insist on taking this action that violates Chinese laws, I repeat: you are unfriendly and irresponsible, and you yourself will have to bear the consequences."… Read more

Google co-founder Sergey Brin adores the company's social network called Google Buzz. We know this because an engineer working five feet from Brin used Google Buzz to say so.

"I just finished eating dinner with Sergey and four other Buzz engineers in one of Google's cafes," engineer John Costigan wrote a day after the Twitter-and-Facebook-esque service was announced. "He was particularly impressed with the smooth launch and the great media response it generated."

You might call Brin's enthusiasm premature, especially since privacy criticisms prompted Google to make a series of quick changes a … Read more

Web site operators will need to offer photographs of themselves and meet Internet service providers in person under new guidelines announced by the Chinese government this week, according to published reports.

The "trial regulations" were issued by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology under the auspices of an ongoing anti-porn campaign, but they will also help the government create records of all sites in the country and could be used to block other types of online content, the IDG News Service reported Tuesday.

The regulations, which were dated February 8 and posted on sites of the … Read more

Gmail appeared to be unavailable to some users in Iran on Wednesday, possibly as part of a government crackdown designed to suppress anti-regime demonstrations scheduled for Thursday.

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the Iranian government said it would shut down Gmail and replace it with a national e-mail system. CNN reported that government officials were believed responsible for blocked text messages and sluggish Internet speeds in Tehran for days.

Gmail users in Iran reported to Google that they were having trouble getting to the service, Google said in a statement later on Wednesday.

"We can confirm … Read more

This week: Probably one of the biggest stories of the year, if not the decade: Google vs China. On January 12, the search company announced it was pulling out of China. We're going to discuss why Google did that, what's new in the Google-China story, and what's likely to happen as this story continues to unfold.

Our guests today make up the impressive CNET reporting team covering this topic, and it's quite a feat to get them together at once. Here in the studio, from the Google beat: Tom Krazit. Covering security: Elinor Mills. And connecting from Washington, D.C., via Skype, politics and policy writer Declan McCullagh.