Google Defends Cooperation With China

He said Google had to accept restrictions in order to serve China, which has the world's second-largest population of Internet users after the United States, with more than 111 million people online.

And exactly what part of China are they serving? Certainly not the people. The ones served by this are the Chinese government and Google's US investors.

He noted that Google's site in Germany is barred from linking to Nazi-oriented material.

This comparison is beyond ridiculous. Google is really reaching to find some defense for their actions. Germany's ban on pro-Nazi material is a far cry from heavy-handed censorship of terms like "democracy." Does China think that if they block access to democracy it will simply cease to exist?

Google acts as if it's forced to operate in China and therefore must be complicit with its government's censorship. Operating in China is completely voluntary. If Google has to betray the spirit of its own country in order to do business in China, maybe it just shouldn't be doing business there.

Shame on you, Google.

They should put a disclaimer on the search results page that says, "Search results have been restricted in accordance with Chinese government directives" and then link to a page that lists the terms they are discarding. Of course, the Chinese government wouldn't let them. "He who pays the piper, calls the tune."

And yes, in accordance with the plot in "1984," if you stop talk about something, you stop the thing from existing. Simple!

Thus far, the Google policy has been to be open and straightforward about their policies. Compare this to Yahoo or MSN which all along have been making such deals in secret. It took a French human rights group (Reporters without Borders) to uncover the fact that Yahoo's disclosure of private account information led to the imprisonment of a Chinese journalist and another citizen. I say good on Google for being open about their policies. And shame to all those who do such things covertly. Our government and corporations have been doing business in China for years. When activists were protesting sweatshops and inadequate salaries despite huge marketing budgets, the American public was totally indifferent. Now all of a sudden we are concerned about their basic human right to unfiltered Google results? Don't get me wrong, I have long followed these issues precisely because I care about human rights. But you can't have it both ways. Either we as a country are pursuiing a policy of engagement with China or we are not. You can't hold Google to a different set of standards than every other company. If they don't do business there, someone else will, and with those revenues they will eventually outcompete Google. The same logic is the reason we have pursued a policy of engagement. We can chose to be isolationist if we want, but then we will not be the world's leader. And is not reasonable to expect more of Google than any other company doing business in China. Particularly when they are already doing more by being forthright about their policies thus far.

As far as a disclaimer, maybe they have one? In any case, the Chinese are not stupid. If they do a banned search, and get no results, they will know that it has been blocked.

There is virtually no way Google in China could uphold the governments policies of censorship. It might do a little to stall the trend of more and more opening, but as a company that makes a business of providing more information to the people, even with government censorship, the overall effect, I think, will be more communication and knowledge.

Getting the govt. to agree to even the most general disclaimer would be a huge milestone in China, and I don't think that is out of the question.

I agree with google.