There has been something of a backlash against Google’s decision to defy the Chinese authorities by ending self-censorship, which may lead to its services being wholly blocked.
Writers such as Evgeny Morozov, Sarah Lacey and The Economist have cast doubt on whether Google is really taking a moral stand. The shift is more a matter of self-interest, they suggest.
This is how Mr Morozov sums it up:
“Here is my very crude and cynical (Eastern European) reading of the situation: Google was in need of some positive PR to correct its worsening image (especially in Europe, where concerns about privacy are mounting on a daily basis). Google.cn is the goat that would be sacrificed, for it will generate most positive headlines and may not result in devastating losses to Google’s business (Google.cn holds roughly 30 percent of the Chinese market).”
I usually yield to noone in my scepticism about Google’s deployment of its “don’t be evil” motto to suggest it is holier than others. Only the other day, I was complaining about it in the context of the Google mobile phone initiative:
Google is fighting for its own interests as hard as Apple does. That is, at one level, obvious since they are both public companies that try to maximise revenues. Yet its insistence on not doing “evil” and its dismissive view of Apple and Microsoft obscures this.
But, in this case, I think Google is doing something against its own immediate interests for ethical reasons. That is impressive.
Google has clearly smarted for some time about agreeing to self-censor its search results. I argued in 2006 that it ought to be wary of this because it risked sacrificing its users trust that it was a responsible keeper of information:
In these circumstances, the internet giants ought to tread very carefully. The benefits of an open internet, free from clumsy regulation and inquisitive authorities have been huge. But they need not last and will be curtailed if the public loses faith in Google and others. China is a vast market but what does it profit an internet company if it gains the whole world and loses its soul?
Still, even if standing up to China is in Google’s long-term interests, it takes some guts to walk away from the world’s largest potential market. Shares in Baidu, the leading internet search company in China, rose sharply on the news on Wednesday.
Perhaps Google is being “long-term greedy”, in the old Goldman Sachs phrase, but it is suffering in the short-term. For once, its claim to avoid evil has some weight.
