Is Google Doing Evil in China?
This is a question many people are asking around the Internet right now. The reason is that Google has followed Microsoft, Yahoo and others in agreeing to limit their search results in China because of political sensitivities.
Some religious groups won’t show up, nor most mentions of the Tiananmen Square atrocities. As William Rees-Mogg puts it in today’s London Times: “Google may have felt there was no commercial alternative to agreeing to the Chinese request. That was the only way it could remain in the Chinese market.”
If you are a global player it’s hard voluntarily to stay out of the most dynamic emerging marketplace in the world. But, is that evil?
Censorship is practised online all the time. Child porn is rightly closed down and resisted. As are other socially-abhorrent themes. But that’s closing down evil, not supporting what many might see as evil oppression.
Rees-Mogg writes: “Nevertheless Google itself regrets the compromise it believes that it had to make.”
In the end it’s all about perception. Didn’t we expect more from Google than this? From the views widely expressed, I think we did. However, the counter-intuitive argument, less often put up, is persuasive. In time, the Internet and its search facilities will open up China intellectually in ways we can only guess at.
Google may yet have the last laugh, and may be able to claim that in apparently giving in to “evil” they ultimately conquered it.
“Do no evil” should remain on the slate until events prove otherwise.
They regret it until they see the money rolling in. Then they won’t mind crushing freedom so much. Check out my view:
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060130/dcm045.html?.v=34
By dumbfounder on January 31st, 2006 at 1:01 am
Thanks for that, Chris. I’ll have to check out Dumbfind. I regret to say I’d never heard of it. I’ll put up a post on Syntagma later today.
By John on January 31st, 2006 at 8:34 am
I think Google’s critics underestimate China’s ability to steal technology. If China wants Google, then it is quite possible China would steal Google’s technology if Google refused to be censored. Its hackers sit beneath the Chinese nuclear umbrella, safe from prosecution, and it might only be a matter of time before some American shyster could be bribed into stealing the technology here in mainland America and spiriting it into a Chinese port. Or did we learn nothing from Clinton-era traitors selling nuclear secrets to China?
In this scenario, it is a matter of Google doing as much good as they can in an evil situation. A government out to get Google could snuff out their competitive edge given enough time and talented hackers.
By Michael Rew on February 3rd, 2006 at 7:33 pm
I wonder if it’s in China’s interests to attack an American company? Everyone would know they were doing it, and Washington would not be best pleased. So why do it if Google is prepared to play the long game?
Maybe it’s simply that no one person or center of influence knows fully what’s going on, so everyone’s busking until something emerges.
By John on February 3rd, 2006 at 8:21 pm
I think the rage over censorship is somewhat misplaced, too. Spam always finds a way through spam filters. Those who want to find censored material and are willing to spend the time goosing Google searches or finding a proxy server, etc., will get the information they want. It is a pain in the butt, of course, but well worth the trouble sometimes.
By Michael Rew on February 4th, 2006 at 4:48 am