[moey]

They stopped the redirect[1] and now just show a link to Google Hong Kong.

They also removed the warning that the user's search results were being filtered [2].

To the best of my knowledge, the current status: User visits Google China - http://google.cn - This is a hyperlink to Google Hong Kong on the front page - IF user searches via Google.cn, the search results will be filtered by China not self-censored by Google. They will NOT be presented with a warning anymore. - IF user searches via Google.hk, from mainland china, the same thing will happen and the results will still be filtered. [3]

At this point, I don't believe the link to .hk Google serves as much use as it does a political statement.

[1] "Google stops Hong Kong auto-redirect as China plays hardball" http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/06/google-tweak...

[2] "Google's dropped anti-censorship warning marks quiet defeat in China" http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jan/04/google-def...

[3] "China censors searches on Google's Hong Kong-based search engine" http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03...

[kbenson]

I agree, I think their original stance, showing results and noting where they had to filter, was much better. But if that makes them a target, and can reverse and good they think they are doing if they are hacked by China and any identifying information (correlation with the Great Firewall seems likely) is found, I can see their reasoning. If you truly want to do the right thing, is making yourself a target that makes the situation worse the right way to go about it? It's a complex situation, and there's probably lots of information that we aren't privy to. At least it got press and there was some awareness.

[gertef]

I wonder why GFW doesn't take the trivial step of redirecting google.hk to google.cn