SAN FRANCISCO — Google will stop censoring its search results in China and may pull out of the country after discovering that computer hackers had tricked human-rights activists into exposing their e-mail accounts to outsiders.
The change of heart announced Tuesday heralds a major shift for the Internet’s search leader, which has repeatedly said it would obey Chinese laws requiring some politically and socially sensitive issues to be blocked from search results. That acquiescence had outraged free-speech advocates and some shareholders. The criticism had started to sway Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who expressed misgivings about the company’s presence in China.
But the tipping point didn’t come until Google recently uncovered hacking attacks launched from within China. The apparent goals: breaking into the computers of at least 20 major U.S. companies and gathering personal information about dozens of human-rights activists trying to shine a light on China’s alleged abuses.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the allegations “raise very serious concerns and questions” and the U.S. is seeking an explanation from Beijing — although Google declined to say whether the company suspects that the Chinese government had a hand in the attacks.
A spokesman for the Chinese consulate in San Francisco had no immediate comment.
Although Google’s search engine is the most popular worldwide, it’s a distant second in China, where the homegrown processes more than 60 percent of all requests.
Without providing details, Google said it and at least 20 major companies from the Internet, financial services, technology, media and chemical industries were targeted. The heist lifted some of Google’s intellectual property but didn’t get any information about the users of its services, the company said. The Google assault appeared primarily aimed at breaking into the company’s e-mail service, Gmail, in an attempt to pry into the accounts of activists protesting the Chinese government’s policies.
As part of its investigation into that incident, Google stumbled onto another scam that was successful. Google said dozens of activists fighting the Beijing’s policies fell prey to “phishing” or malware ruses. The victims live in the U.S., Europe and China.
Malware can be used to obtain passwords and unlock e-mail accounts.
