When politics thwarts translation: Google Translate was partially disabled China

Google has blocked access to Google Translate apparently in some regions of China redirecting users to a Hong Kong site that is inaccessible from mainland China. 

The company also replaced the Google Translate interface at translate.google.cn with a standard Google Search page. 

The modification effected Chrome’s integrated translation capability as well as the translation capabilities of apps such as KOReader for Chinese users. 

Google and the Chinese government have had a difficult relationship. In 2006, Google entered the Chinese market with a censorship restricted version of its search engine. In response to footage of Chinese security forces abusing Tibetans as well as government-imposed blocks on Google services, the firm shut down Google Search in the mainland, diverting the searches to the Hong Kong site. 

Google created a project named Dragonfly in 2018 and 2019 when they were considering relaunching Google Search in China. This would’ve restricted results and tracked users’ whereabouts as well as their web surfing histories. But it was abandoned as a result of disputes with Google which were instigated by the firm’s privacy team. 

In 2020, Google said they wouldn’t directly respond to data requests from Hong Kong law enforcement and would require them to go through a mutual legal assistance treaty with the US. 

If it’s not a technical problem after all, the approaching National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party could be connected to Google Translate’s deactivation in a large portion of the country. 

In the past, the Chinese government restricted Google services around significant political events and politically sensitive anniversaries like the Tiananmen Square massacre.