Google Access in China Normal After Blockage Reported
David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer, told journalists in San Diego today that the company was looking into the cause and that it could be a technical glitch. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
July 29 (Bloomberg) -- Bloomberg's Ari Levy talks about Google Inc.'s announcement that some of its services, including Web search, mobile and advertising, are being fully blocked in China. Levy speaks with Pimm Fox on Bloomberg Television's "Taking Stock." (Source: Bloomberg)
Google Inc. said access to its website in China is working normally after earlier reporting that some services, including search, mobile and advertising, were fully blocked.
“Because of the way we measure accessibility in China, it’s possible that our machines could overestimate the level of blockage,” the company said today in an e-mailed statement. “That seems to be what happened last night when there was a relatively small blockage. It appears now that users in China are accessing our properties normally.”
Google’s initial report on its website raised concern that authorities in China might still be unsatisfied with how the company complies with local law. Google had also said at least two other services, including news and images, were partially blocked, while the Gmail e-mail service was fully or mostly accessible.
Google had its Internet license renewed earlier this month after it stopped automatically sending Chinese users to its separate Hong Kong site. A conflict with China erupted in January after the company said it would no longer self-censor search results in the world’s largest Internet market.
Zhang Feng, head of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s communication development department, said last week the Google China website meets the nation’s regulations against online content deemed to be illicit.
Google fell as much as 2.3 percent to $473.75 in after- hours trading. The stock, down 22 percent this year, had gained 64 cents to $484.99 during regular trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Womack in San Francisco at bwomack1@bloomberg.net
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