June 9, 2006 | In Technology, Politics |
In a meeting with reporters earlier this week, Google co-founder, Sergey Brin, admitted that the search giant had compromised its principals by complying with the censorship demands of the Chinese government, and is now strongly considering a change of course.
“We felt that perhaps we could compromise our principles but provide ultimately more information for the Chinese and be a more effective service and perhaps make more of a difference,” Brin said, describing the government restrictions as “a set of rules that we weren’t comfortable with.”
China’s demands of search engines include blocking keywords like “Chinese torture” and “Tiananmen Square Massacre,” and generally shielding the country’s citizens from all negative information about the government.
Even after the launch of Google.cn, the censored service, the majority of Chinese users kept using the regular Google site whenever possible. Access to the non-censored site is now blocked, however, in the vast majority of Chinese provinces, according to Reporters Without Borders, a free press advocacy group.
Brin says that Google is currently trying to improve the censored search service to make it more fair and balanced, but such efforts will likely be in vain due to the Communist government’s iron-fisted and unwavering attitude.
If Google.cn can’t be brought up to standard, the search giant will likely shut it down, in an attempt to make a statement against the evils of authoritarian oppression.
Depriving the most populous country in the world of access to Google is a drastic step to say the least, but I can understand the motivation for doing so. In cases like this it is often worth sacrificing short-term financial benefit to take the high road, and work towards a greater good.
