A Multinational Fortune Cookie

Google’s withdrawal from China has prompted much speculation. Some see it as a healthy PR move, others a financial and mishap, and then there’s the moral middle ground – it was the right thing to do.

The decision was taken when Google discovered that attempts had been made to hack the email accounts of Chinese human rights activists on its servers. This was the last straw for Google, an organization which prides itself on ethical behaviour – the company motto is “Don’t be evil”.

Whether the move is financially profitable for Google, only time will tell. As it stands, Google has rejected a market worth 2% of the company’s revenue, roughly $500 million. This weight may be relieved by the reciprocal lift to the company’s image, but at the moment it is impossible to know for certain.

Central Beijing 2008

The withdrawal does ask the question of whether Google should ever have been involved in the Chinese market. The decision to acquiesce to being censored took a year of deliberation and sparked much moral debate. In
light of the current decision, it doesn’t look as though Google should ever
have been in the market in the first place.

The reason for Google’s withdrawal was that they were supporting an economy with dubious moral values. The actions of the Chinese government have not changed between the period in which Google entered and left
the market. So, if the reason for their withdrawal was present when they
entered the market, and the conglomerate adheres to its current decision, why
did they ever get involved?

The answer to this appears to lie in the past of one of the founders, Sergey Brin. Brin’s family left the Soviet Union in 1979 to escape the oppressive regime. No doubt Brin must see parallels with the actions of the
Soviet Union in the time of his childhood and with the Chinese government’s
current actions. Discovering the hackers must have created a powerful burst of
memory in Brin’s mind. This probably tipped the balance in favour of the
withdrawal, and explains the uncharacteristic ethical aberration in a company
whose founding blocks are morality.

Tags: China, Google, Human, Rights