“In any compromise between food and poison, only death can result.”
–Ayn Rand
“Don’t be evil.”
–Google Motto
So much for the idea that Google was, in fighting a federal subpoena for search records to bolster a law already declared unconstitutional, being some sort of libertarian behemoth that stood up for principles.
Online search engine leader Google Inc. has agreed to censor its results in China, adhering to the country’s free-speech restrictions in return for better access in the Internet’s fastest growing market.
…
Because of government barriers set up to suppress information, Google’s China users previously have been blocked from using the search engine or encountered lengthy delays in response time.
…
To obtain the Chinese license, Google agreed to omit Web content that the country’s government finds objectionable. Google will base its censorship decisions on guidance provided by Chinese government officials.
Google now joins Microsoft and Yahoo! in conspiring with the enemy in the War on Tyranny.
Apologists will likely insist, as they did with Microsoft, that “any web access is good” for China’s oppressed citizenry. Hogwash. Google is no different from the banks that financed the Third Reich, and will in fifty years be apologizing for its myopia just as those collaborators continue to do to this day.
It is not a betrayal of capitalism to chastise those capitalists who sell out to dictators. (And besides, selling to the enemy is bad managing anyway — the sooner the Chinese dictatorship falls the sooner China will really be an “emerging market” — and an emerging free market is always better for business than an emerging oppressed market).
Shame on Google. Shame.
More thoughts at Hammer of Truth.
8 responses so far ↓
Link Dave // Jan 25, 2006 at 10:39 am
Regarding the Ayn Rand quote: Are you implying that Google will go out of business as a result of its involvement in China's censorship efforts?
That seems a stretch.
Link KipEsquire // Jan 25, 2006 at 11:42 am
No, I'm thinking more along the lines of the antithesis of "A spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down."
What good is sugar if it comes with a spoonful of poison?
Link Dave // Jan 25, 2006 at 12:01 pm
Depends what the poison is I suppose. Not all poisons are lethal.
Link Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of ... // Jan 25, 2006 at 2:19 pm
Freedom Loving Google
That analysis is wrong for a couple of reasons.
First – The Swiss banks’ customer was the German government directly, they could not have financed their evil without the cooperation of some bank.
Link mahndisa // Jan 25, 2006 at 3:15 pm
01 25 06
This is a bad idea, but I think they already compromised with China before over a business executive-oh I think that was Microsoft vs. China….
Link John // Jan 26, 2006 at 11:30 am
"Don't be evil." So much for that idea.
I have to wonder, though, if China required cars to have regulators that wouldn't let them go over 30 MPH, would we be outraged at Ford for selling such cars there? I don't know what the difference is.
What we have here is a case of the Law of Unintended Consequences.
Sure, globalization and free trade make China and other represive countries (a little) more democratic.
But they also make the rest of the world more ANTI-democratic, especially the companies that operate there.
Link Downtown Lad // Jan 26, 2006 at 8:50 pm
I think it was a good call by Google. They're trying to make money.
They would be foolish to give up China entirely. When China turns Democratic, do they really want to be in a position where they have zero market share????
Link Allan Beatty // Jan 28, 2006 at 10:54 am
I never expected Google's "Do no evil" principle to outlast their IPO.