Sunday, January 29, 2006
Sunday Times on Google and China
Those insightful Brits accurately sum up what I was saying about the situation. Unfortunately for publicly traded companies these days (actually for the public, but that's a whole other post), principles may only something to aspire to. When push comes to shove, profits come first. End of discussion. I think Eric's letting Larry and Sergey know that running a multi-billion dollar corporation is a long way from Stanford.
"Don't be evil." That's the motto of Google, which was founded in 1997 and is now worth $129 billion, making it the fastest growing company in the history of the world. The mixture of unprecedented financial growth and squeaky-clean ethics has made Google the only company in the world which is perceived as simultaneously cool, successful and on the side of the good guys.
Again, I just have to say it's all about money. "Don't be evil" is a nice slogan when you want to lure the cream of the open-source crop to your lush Mountain View digs and the on-site dry cleaning isn't inspiring them to sign on.
Sure, they can argue, like they tried on the Official Google Blog, that playing by the rules in this instance allows them the opportunity to do GREAT THINGS in China in the future. But it's a slippery slope. It doesn't take long for argumentment to end up sounding like it came from Wal*mart, a company famous for shirking responsibilitytity as an employer by not providing a living wage or benefits to employees, and then justifying it as OK because in the end it helps the average Amercian family afford a fifth DVD player.
"Don't be evil." That's the motto of Google, which was founded in 1997 and is now worth $129 billion, making it the fastest growing company in the history of the world. The mixture of unprecedented financial growth and squeaky-clean ethics has made Google the only company in the world which is perceived as simultaneously cool, successful and on the side of the good guys.
Or at least that was the case until last week, when Google announced that it was switching its search facilities in China to servers based inside the country, and that as part of that process it would be co- operating with Chinese government censorship of the internet. (Sunday Times 1/29/06)
Again, I just have to say it's all about money. "Don't be evil" is a nice slogan when you want to lure the cream of the open-source crop to your lush Mountain View digs and the on-site dry cleaning isn't inspiring them to sign on.
Sure, they can argue, like they tried on the Official Google Blog, that playing by the rules in this instance allows them the opportunity to do GREAT THINGS in China in the future. But it's a slippery slope. It doesn't take long for argumentment to end up sounding like it came from Wal*mart, a company famous for shirking responsibilitytity as an employer by not providing a living wage or benefits to employees, and then justifying it as OK because in the end it helps the average Amercian family afford a fifth DVD player.
Comments:
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I agree. And Google's excuse that it is better to provide 99% of the information rather than none--well, it's the 1% that is what Chinese citizens NEED to know.
They need to know their fellow citizens are denied freedom of speech, being assaulted by the army to seize farm properties, that Tibet is being brutalized under Chinese dictatorship. They need to know that Chinese prisoners are killed to provide organs for sale abroad, that China is planning a bloody conquest of Taiwan--and to slaughter freedom there too. They need to know that China has broken it's word in Hong Kong by slowly stamping out freedom. They need to know that the desire of the Chinese people to practice religion or even spiritual exercises such as the Falun Gong are ruthlessly crushed.
Most of all the Chinese people need to know that they CAN throw off their Connunist dictators and join Eastern Europe, and to some degree, Russia, in establishing a free government.
That's part of the 1% of the news Google won't tell Chinese web visitors, and it's the only part that really matters.
The other 99% of what Google lets through won't help the Chinese become free. Endless propaganda lies from Beijing that the other censored search engines also provide won't help. Searches for other topics on the web are also provided by the other search engines, so the Chinese are not missing out on the rest of the web at all. Just the 1% that really matters. the 1% that Google has now joined with the butchers in Beijing in censoring.
They need to know their fellow citizens are denied freedom of speech, being assaulted by the army to seize farm properties, that Tibet is being brutalized under Chinese dictatorship. They need to know that Chinese prisoners are killed to provide organs for sale abroad, that China is planning a bloody conquest of Taiwan--and to slaughter freedom there too. They need to know that China has broken it's word in Hong Kong by slowly stamping out freedom. They need to know that the desire of the Chinese people to practice religion or even spiritual exercises such as the Falun Gong are ruthlessly crushed.
Most of all the Chinese people need to know that they CAN throw off their Connunist dictators and join Eastern Europe, and to some degree, Russia, in establishing a free government.
That's part of the 1% of the news Google won't tell Chinese web visitors, and it's the only part that really matters.
The other 99% of what Google lets through won't help the Chinese become free. Endless propaganda lies from Beijing that the other censored search engines also provide won't help. Searches for other topics on the web are also provided by the other search engines, so the Chinese are not missing out on the rest of the web at all. Just the 1% that really matters. the 1% that Google has now joined with the butchers in Beijing in censoring.
# posted by 
: 3:05 PM
: 3:05 PM
Best solution yet to Google's censorship in China:
Check out this invitation to help "Break the Great Firewall"
http://blog.outer-court.com/forum/18190.html
Freedom fighters wanted, are you one?
Check out this invitation to help "Break the Great Firewall"
http://blog.outer-court.com/forum/18190.html
Freedom fighters wanted, are you one?
# posted by : 10:39 PM
: 10:39 PM
The Official Statement from Ministry of Propaganda:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/01/google-in-china.html
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http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/01/google-in-china.html
# posted by : 10:40 PM
: 10:40 PM<< Home
