Hong Kong wasn't far enough... China finally disables Google as search giant loses censorship battle
Google search services appear to have been disabled by Chinese censors on the mainland, stopping the U.S. company's Hong Kong-based website from working.
Web users from across China reported that all standard searches on Google's Hong Kong site were blocked.
Searches resulted in the internet connection being reset and an error message being displayed.
Web users across China claim they are no longer able to access standard searches on Google
The development comes a week after Google announced it was moving its controversial Chinese search engine offshore.
The company caused a row with China when it stopped censoring search results by effectively shutting Google.cn and rerouting traffic to an uncensored site in Hong Kong.
Though part of China, Hong Kong has a semi-autonomous status due to its past history as a British colony, and Google is not legally required to censor results there.
The company has come under criticism from the state media, which has accused it of being part of a U.S. 'plot' to destabilise China.
Beijing was widely expected to make a stand against Google in the wake of last week's decision, possibly by using its filters to prevent people on the mainland from connecting with Google’s Hong Kong-based service.
Trouble with the search service began in China today, and spread from Guandong in the south to Beijing and Jilin to the north.
Internet users were able to access Google's websites but no searches would work.
Google was unable to immediately confirm the cause of the problem, but said it was investigating.
Chinese internet users blamed the 'Great Firewall' - which weeds out anything considered pornographic or politically sensitive before it can reach computers in China.
The latest development follows a public two-month dispute over stringent Chinese censorship policies.
Google also said today that its mobile services have been partially blocked in China for two days.
On a website showing the accessibility of Google's services in China, the company listed mobile as 'partially blocked' on Sunday and Monday.
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