Don't Be Evil: Google willing to stand up to China (in Links)

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html

"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."

Whoa!

Google is willing to stand up to China only after the Chinese government attempted to hack into the email accounts of dissidents. Up to this point, Google was all too happy to censor Chinese web searches and protect the Chinese citizens from evil concepts such as democracy and Tibetan independence. This an encouraging, though belated, turn of events.

Up to now, Google has simply been trying to do business, then escalated the issue when clearly illegal activities began taking place.

Google is a capitalist endeavor. If you expect them to change the world by enforcing their own moral code, you will be waiting for that for a long time.

Sutekh137: Google is a capitalist endeavor. If you expect them to change the world by enforcing their own moral code, you will be waiting for that for a long time.

-I don't expect them to change the world, I simply expect an effort to live up to their stated ethic of "don't be evil." Collaborating with the Chinese government to censor information falls well short of that goal, and the company deserves the criticism it receives.

I really don't think it does, it's a when in Rome issue. Google believed that simply by existing in the Chinese market they could effect change, they were wrong. It's very likely that China will tell them to take a walk when they suggest running search unfiltered. I don't think this is going to hurt them too much, mostly since they've been an also ran in China to this point.

I think they need to run an unfiltered search on "accident" for about 1 hour before they pack up and leave.

^ Good idea...


Better idea would be doing AFTER you were out of the country.

IA, the idealist in me agrees with you, but I have never bought that Google really is some special egalitarian firm -- they'll be "as evil as they need to be", just like everyone else. That should be their motto.

Then again, that's probably what you were trying to illustrate in the first place. Well played. *smile*

Google aren't willing to "stand up to China".

Google just aren't making enough cash to justify the risk of doing business there anymore.

They've failed in their objective.

Bad Google...

http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/01/135105.htm

http://i.imgur.com/5xJmy.jpg

I'm interested to see if google will relocate the people that will lose their jobs in China.

http://images.google.cn/images?q=tiananmen+massacre

^Uh oh!

Wow, I hadn't even seen some of those pics, like the remains of tank run-over. That's terrible.

Thanks, Nov. I typed it the search into .com to compare. I'm surprised the Chinese version didn't pull up threads of Hello Kitty.