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Google Admits China Censorship Was Damaging

Posted by kdawson on from the not-being-evil dept.

pilsner.urquell writes to let us know about a wide-ranging interview with Google's founders from Davos, Switzerland. Larry Page and Sergey Brin admitted that allowing China to censor its search engine did harm to the company in its Western markets. Quoting the Guardian article: "Asked whether he regretted the decision, Mr. Brin admitted yesterday: 'On a business level, that decision to censor... was a net negative.'" The reporter concludes that Google is unlikely to revise its Chinese censorship policy any time soon.

2 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. What about war in Iraq? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Was it damaging or actually good for business? Will the forthcoming war in Iran be good for Google business?

    Just asking, that's all.

  2. Negative.... for BUSINESS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    You people need to stop talking about this like its a "PR" move. They DID NOT SAY it was "negative for chinese people". All they said was that it was "negative for profits."

    I hope they do make a change now. Not just for the Chinese people's sake, but so I can know that Google was OK with censoring people, up until the moment it hurt their profits.

    Way to go.

    Ayn Rand-ians, please don't tell me that if Google changes their ways because of lost profits, the "system worked." I hope every person involved in censoring China gets their library cards taken away.