Google censors the Web in China

To obtain the Chinese license, Google agreed to omit Web content that the country’s government finds objectionable. Google will base its censorship decisions on guidance provided by Chinese government officials.

A Chinese-language version of Google's search engine has previously been available through the company's dot-com address, but now can be found at Google.cn. By creating a unique address for China, Google hopes to make its search engine more widely available and easier to use in the world's most populous country.

In order to operate from China, we have removed some content from the search results available on Google.cn, in response to local law, regulation or policy. While removing search results is inconsistent with Google’s mission, providing no information (or a heavily degraded user experience that amounts to no information) is more inconsistent with our mission.

was the response from Google.

Although many people seemed to be shocked, this isn't the first time Google censors the web. In Google France and Google Germany, many Nazi and hate sites are removed.

In a compromise that trades off Google's desire to provide universal access to information in order to exist within local laws, Google will not offer its Gmail e-mail service, Web log publishing services or chat rooms -- tools of self-expression that could be used for political or social protest.