Google, Actions speak louder than words

Google made an unprecedented announcement this week by claiming it is no longer willing to continue censoring search results on Google.cn, its Chinese search engine. Meetings are underway with Chinese authorities to discuss removing filtering software from Google.cn and, the company further claims, if an acceptable agreement is not reached, Google may shut the search engine down.

Some in the media and some human rights advocates are heralding this announcement as a turning point in corporate America’s relations with China, given that Google attributes their sudden opposition to censorship is the result of a security breach of two Gmail accounts belonging to Chinese human rights activists.

But as Tom Foremski rightly points out over at ZDNET, a leading IT publication:

The question remains is why now? Google could have taken a stand on human rights in China on many occasions in the past.

Many Internet companies operating in China, including Google, have previously complied with the Chinese government’s censorship requirements. And this isn’t the first time that Chinese human rights defenders have been the targeted through their email accounts. Yahoo! handed over Shi Tao’s personal email records to Chinese authorities in 2004 which led to a 10 year prison sentence. He was targeted because of his effort to expose government-endorsed media censorship over the 15th anniversary of Tiananmen. More recently, the Chinese government blocked Twitter, Flickr, and Hotmail prior to the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen in June and attempted to mandate that all PC makers such as Hewlett Packard and Dell install software that filters Internet content.

Foremski also cites a Twitter feed from Guardian reporter Bobbie Johnson – who hits the nail on the head:

Goog [sic] acted after its rights were infringed, not the rights of its users.

That’s why AIUSA pulled out of the Global Network Initiative – a multi-stakeholder initiative – we joined in 2007, with the goal of establishing voluntary principles to promote and respect human rights on the Internet. We saw no tangible results.

We certainly welcome Google’s statements, but actions speak louder than words. And this is the internet company’s opportunity to be a leader. Google should stand with human rights defenders and support the Global Online Freedom Act (H.R. 2271) which could help IT companies resist information requests by the Chinese government.

By Tony Cruz and Anna Phelan, Amnesty International USA’s Business & Economic Relations Group

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11 thoughts on “Google, Actions speak louder than words

  1. I agree with Guardian reporter Bobbie Johnson.

    Goog [sic] acted after its rights were infringed, not the rights of its users.

    So, even while it is protecting it corp interests, google are stumbling in the right direction. Now, other search engine providers will jump at the chance to take share from google in China. Unfortunately, they won't have the same conviction as google with the result being status quo.

    In a perfect world individual shareholders should be responsible for company actions or inactions on more than just a shareprice level. That would make it far harder for "good business" but morally dubious decision making and hopefully make "money talk" in a way that will benefit us all – even those who don't have any.

  2. I agree with Guardian reporter Bobbie Johnson.

    Goog [sic] acted after its rights were infringed, not the rights of its users.

    So, even while it is protecting it corp interests, google are stumbling in the right direction. Now, other search engine providers will jump at the chance to take share from google in China. Unfortunately, they won’t have the same conviction as google with the result being status quo.

    In a perfect world individual shareholders should be responsible for company actions or inactions on more than just a shareprice level. That would make it far harder for “good business” but morally dubious decision making and hopefully make “money talk” in a way that will benefit us all – even those who don’t have any.

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  4. Hey. Great info. Just wanted to tell you that your sidebar appears broken in IE6. Please fix it.

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