Twitter search results are now being indexed and displayed by Google to Chinese users, as reported in the Los Angeles Times.
It effectively gets around the nine-month block of Twitter in China, and the timing is no accident as Google has stopped censoring Chinese search results and redirects users from mainland China to Google.com.hk.
It means that tweets can now appear in Google search results for terms which are popular on Twitter. The LA Times reports that on Thursday morning, it included ‘how to circumvent China’s Internet firewall, why Google decided to exit China and a vaccine scandal unfolding in central China’
Although Twitter results are now part of Google search in the rest of the world, the introduction at this time seems to be a further attempt to strengthen Google’s case against the Chinese government. But given that China has the most effective attempt at a repressive, censored internet, it will be interesting to see whether any technology is introduced to strip the content back out before users can see it – it’s already managing to block uncensored searches for terms such as ‘Amnesty’ or ‘Dalai’ in just a day after the redirect to google.com.hk took place.
Google has claimed that the Twitter results had already been available for a week as part of a global rollout, and the release is unrelated to other events.
Despite the original cyber attacks on Google and fallout which has followed, the search company has said it will continue research and development work and its advertising sales team in China.
This use of Twitter feels like a small move in a game of chess between the search giant and an ideology which isn’t going to back down easily.