Yesterday, however, Google made a mockery of that principled stand by following the compromised path into the Chinese market, which Microsoft, Yahoo, and other tech companies had already blazed. Like them, Google agreed to help China’s totalitarian government spy on and censor its citizens’ use of the Internet in exchange for market access.
But the headline for this latest example of corporate hypocrisy should read, “Google enters China but leaves its conscience back home.”
Specifically, Google agreed to install filters that would prevent Chinese users from accessing online information relating to such topics as Taiwan independence, the Chinese government’s massacre of its own citizens who were protesting for democratic freedoms in Tiananmen Square in 1989 or its equally brutal crackdown today on Chinese peasant farmers who are rioting daily because of their government failure to provide basic services despite China’s booming economy and unprecedented wealth.
I am profoundly dismayed by Google’s decision. But instead of fulminating against it, I feel moved to simply proffer a few questions that demand serious consideration in this context:
Google was the last bastion of corporate conscience in this brave new world of technology. And, it solemnized our faith in its corporate motto – “Don’t be evil” – when it refused China’s previous censorship demands. Therefore, we are constrained to wonder if the googleaires have now decided that it’s better to be evil and filthy rich, than to be good and just super rich?
Indeed, has Google betrayed its corporate motto just to gain access to the Chinese market? Was its corporate conscience, at long last, predicated upon a cost-benefit analysis for its own bottom line?
How can Google distinguish itself from the Bush Administration it defied just days ago and that is now universally reviled for, amongst other things, declaring moral aversion to torture in America whilst renditioning prisoners to be tortured in foreign countries? (The pot calling the kettle black?)
Will Google’s mercenary decision to compound evil upon oppressed Chinese citizens cause you to either divest any financial interest you have in this company or stop using its software?
Finally, to my American readers, how would you feel if Google were a French company and the Bush Administration prevented you from searching for information about the Civil Rights Movement or its failure to render aid to the victims of Hurricane Katrina?
Clearly, Google and the Bush Administration have embraced the moral relativism that allows them to engage in activities abroad that they condemn as morally repugnant at home. But there’s no reason why the rest of us should abide this dystopian doublethink….
Technorati: Google in China, Internet censorship
Anonymous says
Google has behaved in an evil manner. The only appropriate response is for freedom-loving people to boycott Google.
James says
ALH
I admire your ability to always put issues into context. Accusing Google of moral relativism and comparing it to the reviled Bush Administration are inspired.
I agree with Anonymous that Google should pay a price for this decision. It is pure evil!
Andrew says
Google is not only censoring search results on google.cn, they are selectively removing search results on “politically sensitive” topics, such that a search for “falun gong” results in a screen full of links to government propaganda web sites.
I write about this further in an open letter to Google.
Ravic says
What I find even more disappointing is the lack of outcry in this country.
Google’s hypocracy is also similar to Bush’s quest for freedom and democracy, while his administration deals with China, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, etc, and at the same time congratulates the coupe leaders who (unsuccesfully) disposed Chavez, and (so far) has said that they will not deal with a democratically elected Hamas.
ALH, your blog gives us hope.
Anonymous says
james and ravic
I absolutely agree with your comments. I would never have made the connection between Google and the Bush Administration. What a joke that motto is now. And nothing makes this point more than when ALH asks at the end “how would you feel…?”
Deep stuff. I really like the way he thinks and writes.
Ken
Mary Ballard-Bernstein says
Yes, you said it Anthony more censorship and infringement of rights…
On another note, I would like to see your thoughts expressed on the Hamas victory..I delight in reading about world events through your eyes…