Reports indicate that the presence of a world-famous photograph of a pro-democracy protestor standing in front of an oncoming column of tanks on search results from Google.cn could be the clearest indication yet that the search giant is planning to shutter its operations in China.
MSNBC reports that "when NBC News in Beijing did a search for the words ‘Tank Man’ in Chinese characters, the iconic image did appear." The report went on to add that, while not all potentially controversial content was available, information on the Tibetan and Xinjiang independence movements could be found on the site.
UK-based tech news site The Register says that the controversy has caused a great deal of trouble for Google’s business partners in the country, and that search engine optimization (SEO) in the country would be drastically affected by a pull-out.
Experts agree that the Chinese government, barring a major reversal of decades-old policy, is unlikely to take this defiance lying down. The backlash from Google’s apparent – though officially unconfirmed – flouting of censorship regulations could extend to all areas of the company’s business dealings in China.
