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Jan 14, 2010

White House backs Google

Google still filtering Internet searches in China

SAN FRANCISCO - GOOGLE said on Wednesday it was still filtering Internet search results in China in compliance with law there and would not specify when it plans to defy Chinese censors. As of late Wednesday, no changes had been made to the California search giant's self-imposed online search filters in China, according to Google spokesman Gabriel Stricker. Mr Stricker answered 'Yes' when asked by AFP on Wednesday whether Google is still filtering search results at google.cn. Google vowed a day earlier to stop cooperating with Chinese Internet censors and risk banishment from the lucrative market in outrage at 'highly sophisticated' cyberattacks aimed at Chinese human rights activists. China-based cyber spies struck Google and at least 30 other unidentified firms in apparent bids to steal intellectual property and hack into the email accounts of activists around the world, according to security experts. -- AFP

WASHINGTON - WITH Google threatening to pull out of China over censorship, the White House said on Wednesday that it backs the 'right to a free Internet' and confirmed it has held talks with the Internet giant. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said he would not go into details about the administration's discussions with Google, which announced on Tuesday it would no longer filter search results from China on its Web search engine. 'We have had conversations and discussions with them about what they have talked about yesterday,' Mr Gibbs told reporters here. 'I don't want to get much further afield than that.' 'The president and this administration have beliefs about the freedom of the Internet,' Mr Gibbs added, noting that President Barack Obama had expressed them in China last year.

'The right of a free Internet is what many of you heard the president talk about in China,' Mr Gibbs said. During a visit to China in November, President Obama pushed for an unshackled Internet saying he was a 'strong supporter of open Internet use' and a 'big supporter of non-censorship'. Mr Gibbs also recalled that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had asked for an explanation from China for what Google said was a wave of 'highly sophisticated' cyberattacks aimed at Chinese human rights activists. 'As the secretary of state said, we look forward to the response from the Chinese,' the White House spokesman said. -- AFP