Google China: Flowers Laid On Google Sign In Beijing (Photos)

Flowers For Google

Yesterday, Google announced its plans to re-route Chinese traffic to avoid censorship. Google will no longer censor google.cn. Instead, Google will now redirect all Chinese traffic to google.com.hk as a loophole around censorship imposed by Chinese government where it is no longer legally obliged to censor its content. 

• Google Reroutes China Traffic to Avoid Censorship

In a statement, Google said it has discovered that the Gmail accounts of some of the  human rights activists in China were being "routinely" accessed by third parties.

Photos

Google China: Flowers By Google Sign

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uploaded by Sudha Krishna

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  uploaded by Sudha Krishna | add comment

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  uploaded by Getty Images | add comment

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  uploaded by Sudha Krishna | add comment

But, today citizen reporters in China were snapping photos around the offices of Google in Beijing showing flowers and candles being laid on the Google's sign at Google's headquarters in China. See photo here.

Is the flower laying representative of Google's death in China? Is the gesture symbolic or plain scornful?

Globalvoicesonline.org is reporting that after Google announcement, supporters of the company have showed up at Google headquarters to "pay last respects" (see video). It is being reported that a hundred supporters has gathered around the sign last night to sing the song of the Grass Mud Horse, a Chinese internet meme widely used as a symbol of defiance of internet censorship in China. The crowd was allegedly dispersed by police later, and the flowers left on the Google sign have been removed.

Reuters reports the atmosphere inside China's Google headquarters is generally somber.

Many of the regular Google users in Beijing say they feel frustration and disappointment about Google re-routing traffic to Hong Kong. Some of the users are fearsome that Chinese government will shut down Google completely. Others say, government can't block the technology of millions, and Google is doing the right thing.

Google promised to maintain its branch in China, where it will continue sales and product development.