# How exactly is Google.cn censored?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-is-google-cn-censored/360394>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 12, 2006, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-is-google-cn-censored/360394 "2006-06-12T08:49:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-is-google-cn-censored/360394/1 "2006-06-12T08:49:30Z")

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I was just browsing through this [article](http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/4599/106/), and noticed this quote:

> [@itwire.com.au](#):
>
> The [Google.cn](http://Google.cn) site disallows searches on subjects such as Falun Gong, **democracy** , Tianamen Square and Taiwan.

Just to test it, I did a search on the site for democracy.

[http://www.google.cn/search?hl=zh-CN&q=democracy&meta=](http://www.google.cn/search?hl=zh-CN&q=democracy&meta=)

The top of the list is already suspicious with “[en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy)”, and then “[democracynow.org](http://democracynow.org)”. And I could access them with no problems.

So my question is, is [Google.cn](http://Google.cn) supposed to filter these supposed propagandist sites, or is that job taken on by hardware firewalls in China?

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**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\
**Post date:** [June 12, 2006, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-exactly-is-google-cn-censored/360394/2 "2006-06-12T09:32:55Z")

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Sez Wiki:

> [@](#):
>
> Any sequence containing the term is also blocked. For example, since 法轮 (falun, or “dharma chakra”) is blocked, so are 法轮功 (Falun Gong) and 转法轮 (“Turning dharma chakra”). Also, only the Chinese terms are blocked, while the English terms are freely searchable (unless specified otherwise).

However, I searched for 法轮 and got plenty of results, so I don’t know. From what I’ve read Google is self-censoring but I haven’t been able to find any explanation of how it works.

From what I’ve read earlier, though, China has its own firewall and blocking systems in place, and all Google does is skip over results that would be banned in China anyway. So it makes sense that you’d be able to go to [democracynow.org](http://democracynow.org) from [Google.cn](http://Google.cn).