The Morality of Doing Business in China

Over at Dean's World, Scott Kirwin has a great post about Google's decision to allow censorship of its content in China.

Google likes to think it's different from other companies. It has a liberal, Dotcom culture that is known throughout the industry. Google's founders are Left-wing, and the company spends lavishly on Left-wing causes. It is currently standing up to the US government, for example, refusing to release 1 weeks' collection of Search Terms. Google's principled position even earned it praise from many Libertarians.

But then the old Chinese Dream arises... And Google makes a deal to appease the real imperialists (in Tibet and threats to Taiwan) and real butchers (Tiananmen as well as recent riots in villages).

Free Tibet? Tiananmen Massacre? Sorry, this content is being blocked by devout Running Dog capitalists who have made a deal with the Butchers of Beijing.

Corporations are amoral. And the bigger the company, the easier it is for them to make choices that go against our better values. But there is room for condemnation of a company that refuses to allow its own government a glimpse of user search terms but has no problem letting a foreign government broadly censor content.

For Google, money apparently trumps values.

Then again, giving the Chinese people greater access to the Internet (even a censored one) can only lead to a broadening of knowledge. And knowledge is an important stepping stone on the path to freedom. But somehow I doubt that was Google's motivation.