It has been announced that in October Google has stopped its Translation Services in Mainland China due to low usage of one of its flagship products by the users. This news by Google made the users surprised as they noticed that they are unable to access the function for over a Weekend.
According to reports, customers who attempted to visit Google Translate’s previous mainland China URL were sent to the Hong Kong website. Bloomberg reports that Google Translate’s Hong Kong version cannot be accessed in mainland China without a VPN, implying that the internet giant has effectively terminated the service.
In 2017, Google began offering its translation services in China. The business has also released a unique app that Chinese citizens can download on their smartphones. Google revealed that it had stopped offering translation services in China, while not releasing an official press statement about it. Google attributed their choice to the “low usage” of the service.
Since pulling its search engine from China in 2010 due to severe government online control, Google and the Chinese government have had a tense relationship. Later, Google services like Gmail and Maps were prohibited in China.
Google purportedly worked on a censored version of its search engine for China in an effort to re-enter the market, but the company announced in 2018 that it had abandoned such plans after staff members protested that continuing the work would make Google complicit in China’s persecution.
Investopedia reports that Google Only 2% of international web searches originate from China. Google, founded in the US, has encountered many difficulties in the Chinese internet market. Especially notable are Alibaba and Baidu’s dominance of the Chinese internet market. Google has also had trouble with the censoring practices of the Chinese government. The internet behemoth reportedly also fell victim to state-sponsored cyberattacks.
Due to a lack of confidence in official media, Wei noted that Chinese individuals frequently turn to foreign sources to acquire a more complete image of what happens behind the scenes at the Congress and other news about their own nation.
He claimed that using Google Translate, “they can just copy and paste foreign-language text” and have it translated into their mother tongue.
Since Chinese domestic enterprises are always required to abide by government requests for user information, Wei continued, “people frequently feel that there is better privacy protection when they use Google and other foreign companies’ products.”
Know About State Institution Taking Notice
Chinese state institutions, including state media, have been keeping an eye on Google’s capabilities even if Google Maps and, as of late, Google Translate are not available to regular Chinese consumers.
Two months into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, People’s Daily Online, one of China’s top state media outlets, reported on April 18 that Google Maps provided satellite imagery of “all of Russia’s military and strategic assets with the highest definition.” This was in reference to a report from China Central Television.
In addition to receiving 123,000 “likes,” the post was republished more than 5,200 times. Look everyone, this is what we will encounter later, remarked a commenter going by the handle “boyfriend of the nation.”
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