Google has disabled its Google Translate service in China, removing one of the few services the U.S. tech giant had offered in the country, where the regime strictly controls the internet.
Chinese users trying to access the Google Translate app or website will see only a generic search bar and be redirected to Google’s Hong Kong page, which is not accessible from the mainland.
China later moved to block other Google services, such as its email service Gmail and Google Maps.
In 2017, Google made its translation service available on the mainland via a Chinese domain, competing with other homegrown translation options offered by Chinese internet companies such as Baidu and Sogou.Most Western social media platforms and services—including Google, Facebook, and Twitter—are restricted in China as the regime enforces strict censorship laws. Chinese platforms must abide by those rules and censor keywords and topics the authorities deem politically sensitive.
Freedom House ranked China as “the world’s worst abuser of internet freedom” for the seventh consecutive year in its “Freedom On The Net 2021” report.According to the report, Chinese authorities “yielded their immense power” over the tech industry through new legislation, regulatory investigations, and administrative fines for alleged misuse of data.
Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping “has consolidated personal power to a degree not seen in China for decades, but his actions have also triggered rising discontent among elites within and outside the party,” it stated.
