Google accused of 'malicious revenge'

• Source: Global Times
• [04:11 October 27 2009]
• Comments

By Liang Chen

Google, the search-engine giant, is in the spotlight again after blocking the book channel of the People's Daily website, allegedly for having carried stories about Google's recent copyright conflict with Chinese writers.

Google insisted Monday that it is "merely a technical matter," while people.com.cn believed that it was Google's "malicious revenge."

A search for the book channel of People.com.cn has been unavailable through Google's search engine since Wednesday, and the search result reads, "This website may have malicious software, which might damage your computer," screenshots show.

The book channel featured several stories October 20 about Google's copyright controversy with Chinese writers, after Google was found to be uploading over 17,922 extracts of works by 570 Chinese writers to its digital library, allegedly with out seeking permission from the authors.

"After double checking, there is no malicious software detected on our website, and until now Google has not given us any explanation on this matter," Pan Jiang, the director of the books channel of People.com.cn, the official website of People's Daily, told the Global Times Monday.

He did not explicitly point to Google's intent. However, the channel posted a news story at the top of its Web page Monday, quoting a person in charge of the channel as saying that "Google has maliciously blocked the channel in retaliation."

So far, the website has not contacted Google concerning the issue, Pan said.

Cui Jin, a public relations manager at Google China, told the Global Times Monday that the virus warning on the "malicious software" is "merely a technical matter," with no intention of artificial intervention by Google.

The virus warning was automatically generated by Stopbadware.org, a partner company of Google that is committed to protecting Internet privacy and computer users, and protecting them from malicious software, Cui said.

"The whole process is entirely automated without any intentional intervention," Cui said, adding that it was not aimed at People.com.cn.