People's Daily Site Accuses Google of "Malicious Revenge"

Google (GOOG) has seen its fair share of troubles in China, from having its flagship search engine blocked to being scolded for peddling pornography. Last week, the Chinese Written Works Copyright Society accused the company of infringing the rights of Chinese authors through its Google Books project.

And the drama continues. Now, the Web site of the People’s Daily is accusing Google of “malicious revenge” after Google searches for the People’s Daily Online’s books section turned up warnings that read: “This site may contain malicious software that could harm your computer.”

An article posted on the People’s Daily books page, from the Beijing Times (in Chinese), quoted an official with the People’s Daily site as saying he had received numerous calls from readers who said they were unable to access the site through Google. The unnamed official said there was no harmful software on the site, and that he believed the block was due to the site’s reporting of the Google Books story. The site began featuring stories on the rights-infringement issue on Oct. 21, and even created a special page on the subject. “Starting on the 21st [we] were maliciously blocked,” the official said, according to the report.

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