Jeff Chausse
Digital Strategy + Design
My Thoughts on Google & China
All the hubbub surrounding Google’s dealings with China is starting to annoy me. People claim that Google is violating their “no evil” rule by offering a censored version of their web site to Chinese users. This is just ridiculous.
Google does absolutely NOTHING to block Chinese users from Google.com – nothing. The Chinese goverment filters search results that it doesn’t like – thereby making Google.com behave unpredictably to Chinese users. (Nonetheless, 99% of Google hits from China still go to “google.com” and not “google.cn”)
The Chinese government is going to censor Internet pages it doesn’t like – no matter what. Therefore, Google made a version that’s pre-censored – giving users relatively the same results, but in a more predictable and robust manner.
Google has basically been given two options by the Chinese government – provide users with censored and buggy service, or censored and reliable service. It chose the latter (and, actually, kept the former available as an option).
People who are on the warpath against Google are acting like Google had a third option – to provide uncensored results to Chinese users. Google is a big, powerful company, but it can’t single-handledly overturn one of the fundamental policies of a near-superpower government.
Should Google, as a champion for free access to information, protest China’s censorship policies? Yes. Can it, through sheer willpower – or even bribery, for that matter, just make them go away? No.
So, Google is offering the best possible service it can to Chinese users, under non-ideal situations that it can’t control. Sorry, but this just doesn’t feel that evil to me. It’s the Chinese goverment that’s evil.
People complain that Google has become too powerful, yet at the same time they pretty much expect them to overthrow a goverment. Well, which is it?
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