2008 Woodie Awards
Chinese censorship a roadblock to Google's "universal information" ideal
Nathan Harrison, Staff Writer
Issue date: 10/17/06
Last Updated: 12/26/07
For the sum of 1.65 billion dollars, Internet search giant Google announced last week that it is snapping up YouTube, the video archive site that thrives on user submissions. Although Google already maintains its GoogleVideo service that operates much like YouTube, Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO, stated in a press release that YouTube "complements Google's mission to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."
That lofty goal of making knowledge "universally accessible" sounds good on paper - but do Google's actions bear it out in the real world? For citizens of repressive regimes, the answer would seem to be no.
Earlier this year, Google launched a version of its search page tailored to specifications from the Chinese government to omit results leading to sites that government has banned. Though not alone in this kind of self-censorship (search portals Yahoo! and MSN have submitted to similar requests by the Chinese government), Google's unofficial credo of "don't be evil" throws its unethical actions into sharper relief.
Examples of omitted results include links to accounts of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 that differ from the PRC's established position, down playing both the size and aftermath of the demonstration. In identical searches for a keyword phrase including the word "subversive," 83 percent of results returned from the Chinese version of Google's home page were supportive of the Chinese government, while only 28 percent of results from the U.S. home page were so.
To be fair, Google has not gone as far as competitors like Yahoo!, who actively aided the Chinese government in gathering evidence against dissenters resulting in the imprisonment of multiple journalists in that country. Still, Google's policy of compromise guts the high ethical ground it seeks to differentiate itself from other information technology behemoths like Microsoft.
Rather than stand firm behind its principles, Google has opted to cash in on the lucrative Chinese Internet market and put moral concerns aside. That is not the only way it has to be for Internet companies working within the country - Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has been steadfast in his refusal to censor the site at the request of the Chinese government, a policy that, until last week, earned the site a universal ban. Facing internal pressure for access to the now-ubiquitous resource, the Chinese government was the party forced to make concessions in this instance.
That lofty goal of making knowledge "universally accessible" sounds good on paper - but do Google's actions bear it out in the real world? For citizens of repressive regimes, the answer would seem to be no.
Earlier this year, Google launched a version of its search page tailored to specifications from the Chinese government to omit results leading to sites that government has banned. Though not alone in this kind of self-censorship (search portals Yahoo! and MSN have submitted to similar requests by the Chinese government), Google's unofficial credo of "don't be evil" throws its unethical actions into sharper relief.
Examples of omitted results include links to accounts of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 that differ from the PRC's established position, down playing both the size and aftermath of the demonstration. In identical searches for a keyword phrase including the word "subversive," 83 percent of results returned from the Chinese version of Google's home page were supportive of the Chinese government, while only 28 percent of results from the U.S. home page were so.
To be fair, Google has not gone as far as competitors like Yahoo!, who actively aided the Chinese government in gathering evidence against dissenters resulting in the imprisonment of multiple journalists in that country. Still, Google's policy of compromise guts the high ethical ground it seeks to differentiate itself from other information technology behemoths like Microsoft.
Rather than stand firm behind its principles, Google has opted to cash in on the lucrative Chinese Internet market and put moral concerns aside. That is not the only way it has to be for Internet companies working within the country - Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has been steadfast in his refusal to censor the site at the request of the Chinese government, a policy that, until last week, earned the site a universal ban. Facing internal pressure for access to the now-ubiquitous resource, the Chinese government was the party forced to make concessions in this instance.
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