Google inconsistent on censorship but still happy to criticize Microsoft

[David Baxter PhD]

So Now Google Thinks Everyone Should Care About Chinese Censorship?
by Danny Sullivan
Mar 24, 2010

Apparently, Google?s Sergey Brin now believes that the US government should make fighting Chinese censorship a high priority, is disappointed with Microsoft for continuing to censor and is surprised that some question Google?s sudden U-turn in China. I?d say Google needs to get a little time under its belt being outside of China and setting a true example for others to follow, if it really wants to be taken seriously and demonstrate leadership.

Brin?s comments came in an interview with The Guardian. On the US government, as well as businesses in general, he said:

Human rights issues deserve equal time to the trade issues that are high priority now ? I hope this gets taken seriously.​

As for Microsoft, which has a tiny search presence in China, Brin?s ?disappointed? that Microsoft oddly suggested that if you operate in a country, you should obey its laws. Oddly given that?s exactly what Google itself was doing for the past four years. He also said:

As I understand, they have effectively no market share ? so they essentially spoke against freedom of speech and human rights simply in order to contradict Google.​

I?m no fan of Chinese censorship. I was greatly disappointed when Google caved into it. I?m glad they?re no longer doing it. But having done so, Google?s hardly the poster child to tell anyone else what to do. Not right now. Not yet. Not just because Google suddenly found it was no longer in its business interests to stay in China.

Let?s have a much needed reality check. Flashback to January 2006. That was a remarkable month for Google. On January 19, it was hailed in many quarters for pushing back against a US Department Of Justice request for search data. Less than a week later ? on January 26 ? Google caved in to a different government ? China ? agreeing to censor its search engine.

Why did it do that? Google wanted to win in China. To win, it wanted to be physically based in the country. To have local ad reps. To have infrastructure there. To recruit locally. None of this was possible without complying with the censorship demands.

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