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Google has second thoughts about China

· Asian affairs

I am delighted that Google seems to be having second thoughts about collaborating with repression by the Chinese state. I realise that it is not easy for a company to walk away from a huge market but if Google does decide to stop aiding and abetting of a vile regime in a very direct manner, they are to be commended fo their change of heart.

June 7th, 2006 |

12 comments to Google has second thoughts about China

  • James Waterton
    June 7, 2006 at 7:35 pm

    Good. No point selling your soul chummying up to that bunch of barely reconstructed tyrants – most of them will be swept out of there soon enough.

  • Mike Lorrey
    June 7, 2006 at 8:39 pm

    Apparently they found that membership in the Axis of Do Less Evil wasn’t quite as exclusive and hip as the Axis of Do No Evil they formerly belonged to and are deciding that the higher dues fees of the latter are worth the benefits.

  • Coydog
    June 7, 2006 at 9:10 pm

    Too little too late for me. I’ve already switched to another search engine as my homepage. Dogpile and Clusty are pretty good, and Clusty especially is not interested in carrying any water for repressive regimes.

  • Julian Morrison
    June 8, 2006 at 12:04 am

    I think they honestly figured it was “less evil” to provide some quality of search to China, than to leave them all in the dark over a point of purity. Maybe they’ve decided they were wrong? Alternatively, maybe they reckon that now they’re in, they have not insignificant moral suasion over the Chinese authorities – because of how awful it would look if they pulled out citing evil. Perhaps they reckon they can twist some arms and get the censorship reduced?

  • Mike Lorrey
    June 8, 2006 at 2:06 am

    On the other hand, and given the ChiCom history of freeing dissidents and promising to enforce IP whenever they need US support for something, then backpedal afterwards, Google might be using their own stragegy against them, now that they are embedded in Chinese internet use, the government can’t afford to get heavy handed with Google if Google decides to create anti-censorship work-around tools for the people, without cracking down in a way which is grossly apparent to the people.

  • GCooper
    June 8, 2006 at 2:57 am

    I’m half-minded to wonder why all the fuss?

    Six or seven years ago, Google was a half-decent search engine.

    It isn’t now. It’s flabby and bewildered by the spamming jackals who run rings around it.

    The interweb evolves quickly. Google is old stuff.

  • laura brown
    June 8, 2006 at 4:32 am

    Considering Google’s brave stance in standing down their own government’s demands for user records, it’s surprising that the company would capitulate to an outside government by self-censoring their sites, no matter how many clients they might lose. It’s not a very consistent outlook.

  • veryretired
    June 8, 2006 at 4:44 pm

    In the long run, it doesn’t matter what Google does or doesn’t do, just as it really doesn’t matter what rules the Chinese, or any other government, tries to set up to restrict information flow.

    The fact is that the world information culture is here and becoming more pervasive every day.

    The Soviets used to restrict telephones and copying machines, giving rise to the namesake of this site.

    The Baathists and mullahs try to restrict satellite dishes, newspapers, magazines, radio, and internet connections, all in a futile attempt to do what repressive states used to do fairly well—limit access to information. Unfortunately for them, they are living in the past, while the world around them rockets into the 21st century.

    I recall the old story about the king who waded into the surf and commanded the waves to roll back. That’s who these pretend little Stalins are—a red faced fool screaming at the tide while his butt gets soaked.

    As I have said before, any contest between those who fear information and people who eat, sleep, and breathe finding ways to distribute information is no contest at all. Might as well put me up to bat against Roger Clemens, maybe I’ll hit a grand slam.

    Yeah, right.

  • Kim du Toit
    June 8, 2006 at 6:36 pm

    Google is, first and foremost, an advertising company. They live and die by traffic.

    So when scores (maybe even hundreds) of thousands of people stopped using Google because they a.) colluded with the loathsome CHiComs and b.) started de-indexing conservative websites, you bet they had a “change of heart”.

  • nic
    June 9, 2006 at 12:48 pm

    Laura: Google was willing to self-censor but they have not done what Microsoft and Yahoo already have done which is hand over information about dissidents to the Chinese authorities. I think they were still within the boundaries of “do less evil” when they decided to self-censor as at least protects from being in the position of having information that might get dissidents into trouble. Also, everyone in the West is so heavily implicated in the Chinese regime (because we buy stuff made there by forced labour) that it would be holding Google to an artificially high standard to ask it not to behave in the same way as so many other companties.

    Having said that, their decision to refuse to co-operate at all (if they take that decision), is to be lauded.

  • Alex
    June 9, 2006 at 4:24 pm

    The world through google.cn’s eyes is definitely a strange place.

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