Legal News

Google?s Legal Options Scant, Company Mulls China Pullout

By Ashby Jones

The news in the morning’s papers (WSJ, NYT, WaPo, LAT) about Google’s possible decision to pull out of China isn’t a legal development per se. No lawsuits will likely be filed over the cyber attacks on Google’s service. No legal moves to get China to stop censoring Google search results. There will likely be no allegations of treaty violations.

But it’s not entirely surprising that the Google employee who spoke on the issue is its chief legal officer, David Drummond. “We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results” on Google’s China Web site, Google.cn, Drummond wrote in a blog post. “These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered — combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the Web — have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China,” Drummond wrote.

In many other contexts, after all, there would be legal action. Had the censorship occurred in the U.S. or many other nations with histories of and commitments to freedom of expression, suits likely would have been filed. Were the identities of the alleged hackers known, suits likely would be filed (they allegedly stole some of Google’s intellectual property.) Had the alleged hackers been operating from another part of the world, perhaps law-enforcement authorities would be hot on their trails.

But in the absence of a legal system that resembles our own, there can be no legal action. Or, said another way, business action becomes legal action. Google can’t sue or make legal appeals to the Chinese government. But it can make its grievances public — very public — and exercise its power of the purse, by depriving Chinese citizens its product.

Chinese officials couldn’t immediately be reached by the WSJ for comment. The government in the past has repeatedly defended its handling of the Internet, and has rejected accusations that China is responsible for cyber attacks against foreign entities.

All this said, however, movement is afoot. Investigators are probing whether the attack is linked to the Chinese government or intelligence services, one person familiar with the investigation said. The attack has reportedly piqued the interest of U.S. intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency, this person added.

Will Google’s action work? Will it spur Chinese authorities to commit to greater freedoms and providing more help in tracking down perpetrators of cyber crime? It’s too soon to tell. But according to the Journal story, “even the public suggestion that [Google] considering such a move is likely to infuriate Chinese authorities.”

Google might even get what it wants. The company said it will be talking with Beijing in coming weeks about how it might operate in China without censorship. So who knows?

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 13, 2010 (boomark / email).