Good for Google
Hopefully this is true, but it appears that Google is fed up with Chinese hijinx and is considering either pulling out of the country or insisting on being more open and less filtered. I have given Google a lot of grief here for enabling Chinese censorship, so kudos if they are starting to rethink their relationship with China.
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.
Bob Smith:
The question is whether Google is fed up with the hassle and bad PR, or whether they've actually renounced what they were doing in China. My bet is that this is no change in moral outlook.
January 13, 2010, 12:22 amBob Smith:
Are they merely fed up with the hassle and bad PR, or have they actually renounced in principle what they were doing in China? My bet is the former.
January 13, 2010, 12:23 amroger the shrubber:
kindly note the impetus for google's departure from china was "chinese cyberattacks on google infrastructure". IOW, google had no problem with the chinese government crapping on and stealing from their own people - and everyone else on earth connected to the web, BTW - but when the chicoms started doing it to THEM, well then! dealing with bad people like that is (suddenly) morally *wrong*, and they just won't be a party to it anymore!!!
google has no more corporate ethics than does goldman sachs or madoff & company, and quite a bit more hypocrisy to boot. screw 'em.
January 13, 2010, 12:37 amDoug:
Google has a tiny market share in China anyway. They simply aren't making any money there, so they are using this moral posturing as a possible way to exit the China market without it looking like they 'failed' there.
January 13, 2010, 1:41 pmO Bloody Hell:
> google has no more corporate ethics than does goldman sachs or madoff & company, and quite a bit more hypocrisy to boot.
Yeah, a little bit worse and they'd be as unethical as a typical government agency...
I'll believe Google has "reformed" when they apologize to Bowman's Brigade.
January 13, 2010, 5:03 pmTerry Noel:
Bob's point is well-taken. I was disappointed when they agreed to go into China without insisting on no government censorship.
January 14, 2010, 5:00 am