Comments on: Collaborators at Google--and beyond

CNET News.com's Charles Cooper says the tech industry should move beyond its take-it or leave-it approach to trade and human rights.

[glennwsmith]

It's an idustry problem.

Mr. Cooper,

Thanks for your common sense in not pinning the blame on Google. As you point out, censorship is something that the industry needs to tackle collectively -- and I hope that your column serves as a rallying point.

Glenn Smith
Baton Rouge, LA

[WidgetGnome]

Google deserves credit for standing up against US

Censorship is bad not no worse than the US media censoring dissent to the US Govt abuses since 911. Google deserves credit for not giving up the searches and helping Big Brother. Censorship in the internet is futile. Big Brother is the real problem and Yahoo helped Big Brother in China and the US.

[gubbord]

Nothing is going to force greedy companies like Google

to follow human rights over profits but there should be systems in place to punish companies like Yahoo that actually help send people to jail for criticising the government, that's a whole other level of collaboration

user boycotts, ostracism and possibly local us legislation should be used to punish companies that send innocent people to prison camps

[jarohan]

What did you expect?

I've read several articles and opinions that Google has somehow failed or has violated some core business principle (other than their publicity-generating altruistic statements that are, ultimately, worthless now that they have shareholders to answer to).

What I don't understand is how people can realistically expect any single company (Google, Microsoft, anyone) to resist the Chinese government and somehow get China to capitulate to any foreign corporate demands. This is no different than any other country, whether it's France or England or Lichtenstein - if you, as a company, want to do business in another country you will comply with the laws of that country, irrespective of how you persnally feel about their type of government. Would the US government allow any foreign company to violate any US law because they don't philosophically agree with it? Please! Just look at the consumer privacy difference between Europe and the US (where personal privacy is much more protected in Europe and in the US the corporations are protected, not the consumers) and what the impact is of that to any company operating in both regions. They must comply with local laws. Period.

Is too much to imagine that this little taste of democracy and freedom will, ultimately, push Chinese culture just a little closer to a free society?

Baby steps, people, baby steps.......

[tylhan]

Why is it Google's responsibility to stand alone?

I'm not sure why people think Google has done anything even remotely newsworthy here. If a company wants to do business in China, they follow China's laws. Why should Google be any different?

Oh yeah, I forgot, their company motto: "Don't be Evil." Well, I guess that means that they should avoid trying to run a business in any situation where something could possibly be construed as 'evil' - like following the law.

If people are so upset about China's communist regime, there are much more effective ways of protesting them than telling a big company to do your protesting for you. You could, for instance, refuse to buy anything made in China. You could write to your senator telling them you support trade restrictions or other such policy. You could learn Chinese and write your own political blog using codewords for words like 'freedom'. You could take a trip to China and hand out money to the peasants... You get the picture.

If you want to do something, do it. Don't expect someone else to do it for you.

[booboo1243]

Is everyone losing it?

How is Google doing anything different from what is was doing it before?
Google has been always cencoring Nazi contents in Germany but no one said anything about that.
What Google is doing is following the local laws in the country they are operating, for example there is no image safe-search filter for Google Japan because it is a non issue with the Japanese government.
After all Google is a search company, "a-search-company", not a "goverment-changing-company"
It is not Google's job to impose US laws in other countries. I am sure that when the laws will be different Google China will be different too.

Giuseppe
http://www.senzaspam.com

[Triskadekaphobia]

Google and the Law

1) Google is already doing censorship in other countries.

In many countries in Europe, especially Germany, Google has to censor searches to cut out references (especially visual) to the Nazi Party of the 1930s and 1940s. This is censorship, even if it is censoring something that many people consider bad to censor. (Many people argue that anything about Nazism should not be censored because that is clouding history and encouraging it to be repeated.)

This means that Google is having to conform to local laws in order to make their search engine acceptable to the local government. There you go. They're practicing censorship. This means they've already compromised their so-called integrity.

If suddenly a company stops conforming to local laws, what do you normally think? They're crooks! Not conforming to local laws means they're criminals by definition. We may not agree with Chinese laws, but they're their laws. No business has the right to charge around telling a country to change their laws.

2) Right now, Google is unstable in China.

If my choice is between unstable-but-can-access-nearly-anything Google and stable-but-limited I do pick stable-but-limited -- because ultimately, my other choice is really nothing. Google is a business, not a religion, and I don't expect them to be saints by any particular group's standards. (Oh, and one of the things China is trying to block is pornography -- in fact, that's one of their biggest priorities.)

And finally...

I don't think Google is upholding a "double standard" by fighting the U.S. government over handing over data while agreeing to work with the Chinese government on searches.

Again, this is a matter of local law. The U.S. government demanding the Google search data sits in a bad spot. It's demanding private information -- and there are specific laws in the U.S. banning the government from taking private information. So Google is fighting it.

In short, Google is just trying not to be a crook. I don't see why people are so upset.

[EdShaffer]

Money or Morals

Parade Magazine had China's ruler in the top ten worst leaders. It was reported that 400,000 people were kicked out of their homes to build the set for the 2008 Olympics.

If Google will adjust the search results of their product for this case, what will they do with your search results?