OK. You are a for profit corporation with shareholders and have a fiduciary responsibility to make money for them. China represents an important opportunity to do just that, but your legal counsel's brilliantly worded statement neatly omits the fact that, although you will not self-censor, you will allow censorship by Chinese government regulators. It is not evil, it's just business and national autonomy.
It can also be viewed as a capitulation of Google's former position on unrestricted freedom of information to all people made in the interests of profit.
Your integrity as a business remains intact. You can avoid losing it by making no more claims that freedom of information for all is among Google's principles. In my opinion, you just abandoned that principle, and any such claim would only be hypocrisy.
Will Chinese government accept this approach? Good luck google.cn and google.com.hk
ReplyDeleteOK. You are a for profit corporation with shareholders and have a fiduciary responsibility to make money for them. China represents an important opportunity to do just that, but your legal counsel's brilliantly worded statement neatly omits the fact that, although you will not self-censor, you will allow censorship by Chinese government regulators. It is not evil, it's just business and national autonomy.
ReplyDeleteIt can also be viewed as a capitulation of Google's former position on unrestricted freedom of information to all people made in the interests of profit.
Your integrity as a business remains intact. You can avoid losing it by making no more claims that freedom of information for all is among Google's principles. In my opinion, you just abandoned that principle, and any such claim would only be hypocrisy.