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Google get out

Adam LaMascus
The Commuter

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Google has become a poster child of corporate responsibility, loved and revered by companies, news groups, and politicians all over America ever since they announced that they will no longer censor Google’s China page, google.cn.

“God bless Google,” said Rep. Frank Wolf, and Rep. Chris Smith claimed Google’s move was a “thrill of encouragement.” All of this commotion occurred after more than 30 companies suffered cybernetic attacks, all geared towards getting access to the email accounts of citizens the Chinese government considers political dissidents. While there is currently no concrete evidence, it is apparent to just about everybody that the Chinese government perpetrated the attacks.

A report by the Associated Press warns that we should hold off on praise, at least a little bit. The report states that while Google has definitely taken a good step forward, they should have added, “until we reach an agreement.” That’s right. Google will continue to censor the Internet until they reach some sort of compromise with China.

Harry Wu, a political dissident who spent 19 years in a forced labor camp, was not surprised. “Google doesn’t really care about human rights,” he said.

Many hold similar views. Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum Center for Strategic and International Studies, said, “This shows that even Google has a conscience if the Chinese are egregious enough … This is a long-overdue correction. I give Google credit for having done it; it would have been nicer if they’d done it sooner.”

I feel Google doesn’t really deserve the praise. They voluntarily went into a country that blatantly ignores human rights, arrests and often murders people who disagree with them, and destroys the environment with little restraint in order to increase their global standing. Google shouldn’t have gone there in the first place. Even though Google’s motto is “Don’t be evil” according to CEO Eric Schmidt, they really couldn’t pass up 300 million new customers. Never mind having to make a deal with the devil to get them.

I suppose it is an utter waste of time to say that corporations should be moral instead of greedy, but that is what it comes down to. It is through greed that companies become enablers for evil. Hitler would have found it much harder to wage WWII if Mauser, Krupp, Volkswagen, BMW, Daimler-Benz, Porsche, Focke-Wulf, Heinkel, Dornier, and Messerschmitt had all refused to support his war effort, but hey – who can say “no” to millions in government contracts?

While obviously nobody has been killed by Google’s product, the idea is still the same. They are selling out people and assisting ruthless totalitarianism for a few extra bucks. While all corporations do this to some degree, Google stepped over the line by selling themselves to China. I’ll be very surprised and impressed if Google decides to follow its own motto and stop helping the Chinese government. Yahoo, Microsoft, and Cisco should do the same.

The issue was made personal for me a few months ago, when one of the Commuter staff members called me over and showed me his computer screen. It showed what anyone sees when they try to open the web page for “The Onion” by going through Google’s China page.

What appeared was a blank white screen, stating that the glorious People’s Republic of China had blocked the page because the content of the page was morally and intellectually corrupt, and the page was being blocked for your own protection.

It was a startling realization that for over a billion people, the statement “Big Brother is Watching You” is very real, and very dangerous. Get out of China, Google.

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