Google's Evil: The China Question

Google's corporate mantra suggests such a rare idea these days that it's almost soothing to say, "Don't be evil." So it's with all the more rage that Google-lovers and Google-haters go beserk over the company's entry into the Internet market in China.

Yes, Google compromised their corporate values. That's not a tough one: censorship is pretty illegal, no matter how you slice it. But without making concessions, the Chinese market, and that's a big one, would have been off limits entirely. Google's argument: better to provide some search technology and therefore information to people rather than no information at all.

For instance, search for Tiananmen in China, and you won't see the tank man. Or know anything about the popular democratic uprising and thousands that were slaughtered by the party. What information gets out matters.

What follows are selections from Google's public statement earlier this year when the company announced the venture.

Google users in China today struggle with a service that, to be blunt, isn't very good. Google.com appears to be down around 10% of the time. Even when users can reach it, the website is slow, and sometimes produces results that when clicked on, stall out the user's browser. Our Google News service is never available; Google Images is accessible only half the time. At Google we work hard to create a great experience for our users, and the level of service we've been able to provide in China is not something we're proud of.

This problem could only be resolved by creating a local presence, and this week we did so, by launching Google.cn, our website for the People's Republic of China. In order to do so, we have agreed to remove certain sensitive information from our search results. We know that many people are upset about this decision, and frankly, we understand their point of view. This wasn't an easy choice, but in the end, we believe the course of action we've chosen will prove to be the right one . . .

Filtering our search results clearly compromises our mission. Failing to offer Google search at all to a fifth of the world's population, however, does so far more severely. Whether our critics agree with our decision or not, due to the severe quality problems faced by users trying to access Google.com from within China, this is precisely the choice we believe we faced. By launching Google.cn and making a major ongoing investment in people and infrastructure within China, we intend to change that . . .

We're in this for the long haul. In the years to come, we'll be making significant and growing investments in China. Our launch of google.cn, though filtered, is a necessary first step toward achieving a productive presence in a rapidly changing country that will be one of the world's most important and dynamic for decades to come. To some people, a hard compromise may not feel as satisfying as a withdrawal on principle, but we believe it's the best way to work toward the results we all desire.