Google, the company with the mission to make the worlds information universally accessible has come under fire with its re-launch of Google-China. It seems that the lure of the second largest Internet user base in the world proved to be strong enough to get the worlds biggest media company to comprise its ideals. Google, the Internet search engine, has been the target of strong criticism after its recent decision to censor its search engine in China in exchange for access to Chinas 100 million Internet users. Until now, Google has relied on an objective mathematical formula to determine the rankings of information results. Now however, the search engine is voluntarily filtering out information that has not received the stamp of approval from the Chinese government. Human rights activists see Google actions as a sell-out and have been very vocal in their condemnation of the company.
According to Google's critics, by agreeing to self-censorship the company is effectively perpetuating Chinas repressive regime. They note for example, that any Google site in the world except for Chinas will bring up 1.7 million results when searching for Tiananmen Square, but Google China brings up just 13,000 results, all of which ignore the horrific events of 1989. Further angering critics is the fact that Google's censorship of its search engine is being conducted in-house, not by the Chinese. Those who oppose Google's agreement to self-censor worry that the company will not be transparent about its actions and that furthermore, Google's decision effectively legitimizes censorship.
Google defends its actions in China arguing that it is only complying with Chinese laws. Indeed, Google co-founder and co-president Sergey Brinn claims that the company has not made any trade-offs, rather, the company has simply added some filtering mechanisms to its Chinese search engine. According to Google, the new filtering mechanisms will actually facilitate the search process for users by blocking sites that have already been censored by the government. In addition, Google maintains that it will alert users to fact that sites have been blocked. According to Google, the company's mission has not changed; it still strives to be the leader in the information environment.
Discussion Questions:
1. Why do you think Google make the decision to block politically sensitive sites in China? Could the company have gotten access to the Chinese market without agreeing to self-censorship?
2. Google has been the target of intense criticism regarding the transparency of its actions and whether users will realize the extent to which information is being blocked. What is Google's responsibility to the Chinese population? By agreeing to block politically sensitive information, is the company actually perpetuating Chinas repressive regime?
3. What would you say are the cultural differences between Chin and Google? Once describing these cultural differences, diagnose the spheres of culture and their interaction