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Google's Action Makes A Mockery Of Its Values

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the something-to-think-about dept.

Jason Jardine linked us to a well written piece discussing how Google has thus far promised to Do No Evil, but their recent decisions regarding censorship in china make a mockery of those values. We've been following this story all along, but I thought this article makes good food for thought.

4 of 742 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Sheer Hypocrisy by AndersOSU · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is age old moral relativism...

    Should I stop another culture from allowing the use of dangerous fireworks?
    Should I stop another culture from caning people?
    Should I stop another culture from restricting trade on the latest gee-whiz makes your life easier device?
    Should I stop another culture from oppressing freedom of speech and religion?
    Should I stop another culture from systematically sexually and physically abusing a minority group?
    Should I stop another culture from allowing slavery?
    Should I stop another culture from committing genocide?

    Saying that we shouldn't impose our values on another culture is fine, but only to a certain point. Maybe we should allow them to censor information, but definitely we shouldn't make it easier for them to do so. There has to be a line somewhere, and our opposition to any culture should be proportional to how far along a "continuum of evil" they are. I think that today we shouldn't be helping China censor their population.

  2. Google should publish the filter list by mcguirez · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Hold up to public scrutiny what China wants to hide.

    Publish the blocked list.

    While this doesn't solve the problem of Google pandering to the Chinese regime, it can demonstrate to the rest of the world exactly what China is afraid will unbalance it's leaderships power. Raising the visibility of banned authors and topics will help undermine their attempt to limit knowledge.

    --
    When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras
  3. Re:Hypocracy apparent: google.com vs google.cn by mcvos · · Score: 4, Interesting

    But in support of the "something will filter through" position, I offer you this:

    http://images.google.cn/images?q=tiananmen&svnum=1 0&hl=zh-CN&lr=&cr=countryCN&start=80&sa=N

    I see two tank pictures there.

  4. Re:Hypocracy apparent: google.com vs google.cn by benjjj · · Score: 5, Interesting

    a more telling example is a search for "falun gong" on each google site. the one's at .cn are clearly anti-FG propaganda, while .com results mostly document chinese gov abuses of FG practitioners. in this cases, it looks like google isn't simply censoring search results, it's helping the chinese gov't to spread propaganda.