TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Google Has no License For China Service: Newspaper

Google Has no License For China Service: Newspaper

Reuters News Wire (reuters@telecom-digest.org)
Mon, 20 Feb 2006 22:22:29 -0600

Internet search giant Google Inc.'s controversial expansion into China
now faces possible trouble with regulators after a Beijing newspaper
said its new Chinese-language platform does not have a license.

The Beijing News reported on Tuesday that Google.cn, the company's
recently launched service that accommodates the China's censorship
demands, "has not obtained the ICP (Internet content provider) license
needed to operate Internet content services in China."

The Ministry of Information Industry, which regulates China's
Internet, was "concerned" and investigating the problem, the paper
said.

Google has weathered criticism from United States lawmakers,
international free speech advocates and Chinese dissidents for abiding
by Chinese censors' demands that searches on its new Chinese service
block links about sensitive topics, such as Tibet and the 1989
anti-government protests in Tiananmen Square.

A spokesperson for Google told the paper that it shared an ICP license
with another, local company, Ganji.com -- a practice followed by many
international companies in China, including Yahoo Inc. and eBay Inc..

Usually, foreign investors in Chinese internet services must hand over
operation of the service itself to a Chinese partner, with the foreign
investor receiving payment for technical support.

The paper said Google.cn's operations appeared to be different and the
name Ganji does not appear in reports about the U.S. company's China
activities.

Copyright 2006 Reuters Limited.

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