According to Newsweek, Google strives to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible." It has been all over the news how China wanted Google to censor its search results. Although Google tacitly complied for a time, they eventually withdrew services from China. By withdrawing services, Google is protecting their status as a happy company at peace with its values. They no longer want to "bow down to government pressure to censor results." Even though the company will lose billions of dollars in future profits, they stand behind their mission to provide information to all without censorship.
As a major business company, I believe that says a lot about Google. They are keeping their users best interest at hand. They are willing to lose billions of dollars, because they believe in the First Amendment, and the right to give users free access to information without censorship.
The withdraw of Google in China is similar to libraries. Libraries believe in providing access on every type of material, regardless of content. Although there are times we are faced with challenges, we too have to think of our patrons and the First Amendment. We fight to keep books on the shelves, and materials available to all without censoring. I support Google for not censoring in China, and I support all libraries that do not censor! Let's give people the right to receive the information that they want.
Leonsis, Ted. How to build a happy company. Newsweek: April 12, 2010.
Liu, Melinda. China's mixed signals. Newsweek: April 5, 2010.
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I agree - good for Google. US companies should not be helping China censor. Secretary of State Clinton gave a speech back in January about internet freedom. She said, “Censorship should not be in any way accepted by any company from anywhere. And in America, American companies need to make a principled stand. This needs to be part of our national brand. I'm confident that consumers worldwide will reward companies that follow those principles.” We consumers who believe in intellectual freedom should reward companies that refuse to help China censor. Apparently, some US companies do help China with surveillance. There is a list at:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/selling-china-surveillance
Secretary Clinton’s speech can be found at:
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/01/135519.htm
Thanks Lori for posting the 2 links. they were really interesting. i really did not think too much about the Internet issues we were having in other countries due to censorship. I am glad that Secretary of State Clinton addressed this issue, and is encouraging American companies to take a stand. I hope more American companies do stand up toward other countries.
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