Digital Trends

Search engine Google will censor sensitive search terms in the Chinese version of its search engine, but plans to stay out of blogs, chats, and email for now.

Internet search engine Google's famous motto "don't be evil" has apparently been localized for the Chinese market: the new version is "we try to choose the lesser evil."

In a voluntary move, Google will censor politically sensitive terms from the Chinese version of its search engine. The company has not disclosed a list of terms which will be forbidden as it enters the Chinese market, but other search engine providers operating in China—including those operated by U.S. companies such as Yahoo and Microsoft—do not permit searches for terms the Chinese government finds politically sensitive, such as seeking information on Taiwan, Tibetan independence, pro-democracy initiatives, or the Falun Gong movement.

China's government censorship policies are widely perceived as some of the most repressive on the Internet, with the OpenNet Initiative characterizing China's Internet censorship as "the most extensive, technologically sophisticated, and broad-reaching system of Internet filtering in the world."

However, China also represents the world's second largest Internet market. Google's senior policy counsel acknowledged in a statement that censoring information in response to local laws is inconsistent with Google's ideals, but that Google felt providing no information at all was even more inconsistent with the company's mission.

The Chinese version of Google's search service does indicate when search results have been omitted due to Chinese regulations, including a statement (roughly translated), "Some search results have been omitted according to local laws, regulations, and policies." Google also notifies users of its U.S., French, and German services when search results omit banned material, such as Nazi-affiliated sites.

For the time being, Google plans only to offer Google's primary internet search, Google News, image search, and local search. Google does not plan to offer Chinese versions of its GMail, Blogger, Google Talk, and other services unless it can find a way to strike a "proper balance" between local conditions and Google's commitments to satisfy users' interests.