Don't Be Evil, Google
by Tim Dean, PC Authority
And I quote: ‘Corporations which provide Internet searching, chat, publishing or other services should make an effort to ensure that they respect the rights of their clients to use the Internet without interference.’ This quote comes from a joint declaration between the United Nations, the Organization of American States and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and was signed only in December last year.
Yet I wonder whether that was too late for Google to give it a good read and ponder its significance?
The launch of Google’s official portal for mainland China, google.cn, has received a lot of attention recently. Not surprisingly, in order to earn the Chinese government’s stamp of approval, Google had to employ some fairly striking censorship to its results. Sites covering the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, the Dalai Lama, the Falun Gong and many European and American news sites just don’t rank when you search using google.cn. This is clearly censorship that we would not tolerate if it were to take place in Australia. However, should we tolerate it if it’s happening in a foreign country? This is not an easy question to answer.
Google is quite within its rights as a company to conduct its business in any way it pleases as long as it doesn’t contravene any local or international laws. In fact, Google couldn’t operate in China if it didn’t respect the local laws. This raises the question of whether Google should do business in China at all.
Just because a business can do something legally doesn’t mean it will or that it should. Hence, Google’s own motto: ‘Don’t be evil’. From the outset, Google branded itself as a company that did things because it thought they were the right thing to do, not necessarily because they would lead to increased profits at any cost. This it not to say that Google has always adhered to this ideology, but it has left it wide open to be branded hypocritical when it appears to contravene it.
But it’s not even as easy as criticising Google for breaching its own moral code. In Google’s defence, there is a compelling business imperative that drove it to comply with China’s restrictive censorship laws. The old drug dealer argument raises its head: if Google didn’t go in there, some other search company would have done so. This doesn’t make it ‘right’ in the moral sense, but economic Darwinism says that only the most competitive business survive. Had Google not taken the opportunity, it would have weakened its business. It also would have been negligent in its responsibilities towards its shareholders, who expect a return from their investment.
Through all these arguments, I can see why people would not want Google to comply with a censorship regime that they themselves wouldn’t tolerate having applied to them. But I can also see why Google would have taken the opportunity to get into the incredibly lucrative market in China. At the end of the day, Google is not really to blame. Instead we need to evaluate the way we do business, and weigh up the relative importance of economic prosperity compared to our moral convictions. Many investment funds and shareholders have been doing just this, such as what happened on December 22 last year.
In association with the Reporters Sans Frontières, 28 investment groups, representing over US$22 billion in assets, issued a joint statement supporting the freedom of expression on the Internet. Sure, US$22 billion is only a drop in the ocean, but it's by no means insignificant. So if your moral convictions are strong enough to tip the balance against financial concerns, then there is a recourse.
Don't invest with Google. Invest with an ethical fund that supports your convictions, and make a statement with your wallet.
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