Don't Be Evil?
This story hit the wires last week and we decided not to comment, assuming the media and blogs would be all over it. Oddly, the story has been all but ignored with patchy coverage here and there from tech blogs. So here goes:
[ From the AP] Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin acknowledged Tuesday the dominant Internet company has compromised its principles by accommodating Chinese censorship demands. He said Google is wrestling to make the deal work before deciding whether to reverse course.
Meeting with reporters near Capitol Hill, Brin said Google had agreed to the censorship demands only after Chinese authorities blocked its service in that country. Google’s rivals accommodated the same demands ‚Äî which Brin described as “a set of rules that we weren’t comfortable with” ‚Äî without international criticism, he said.
“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….
“It’s perfectly reasonable to do something different, to say, ‘Look, we’re going to stand by the principle against censorship and we won’t actually operate there.’ That’s an alternate path,” Brin said. “It’s not where we chose to go right now, but I can sort of see how people came to different conclusions about doing the right thing.”
We’ve been opposed to the deal all along, especially given the company’s better-than-thou posturing and their “don’t be evil” mantra. Brin’s statement of course begs the question if Google compromised their principles, why not change course now? Maybe Google will decide to do the right thing in the coming weeks, but simply issuing a statement admitting that they fucked up is an empty gesture.
