These attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered — combined with the attempts over the past year to further limit free speech on the web — have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China. We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.
Apparently, someone-or-something was trying to crack open the Gmail accounts of two human rights activists in China, and Google followed the leads from there. This lead to some big thinking. I hope they’ll make the right decision this time, instead of the “maximize shareholder value” decision.
Maybe “do no evil” means asking yourself the question if running your operation puts people at risk.
I think it’s time for Western firms manufacturing, or contracting manufacturing to China, to start using their economic muscle.
(Which really means consumers pressurising them to).
Unfortunately, I don’t think Google is ‘necessary’ to the Chinese economy, and Apple lacks the ethical balls these days.
By JulesLt · 2010.01.13 08:32
I think this is a pretty good take on cutting through the PR spin.
Better than anything I could have said, anyway.
By Brendan · 2010.01.13 15:55
Of course they’re:
I didn’t know that any of that was up for question. What I do know is that they’ve saying “if we don’t work this out, we’re going to leave, thousands of people are going to lose their jobs and you’re going to have to dream up some pretty strong propaganda — ‘capitalistic bourgeois pack up and leave because of overwhelming communist awesomeness’ — to explain our actions in your state-controlled media”. Having the world watching also limits the amount of funny business that can go on in these negotiations.
This is not some kind of Schrödinger’s reality. Google’s self-interest and good intentions can exist simultaneously, side by side. Putting themselves in a position where they’ve committed to take on this particular government, one which is demonstrably out to get them, qualifies as courage in my book.
(Additionally, Google is in the business of delivering eyes for ads. If they take their ball and go home because censorship doesn’t improve, there’s a good chance that services like Gmail will just be cut off completely from inside China. There’s certainly some potential for loss of revenue here, so if one happens to be the kind of person that keeps track of what you have to do to qualify for acclaim, one could now tick that box.)
By Jesper · 2010.01.13 21:52