The Business Ethics Blog

A few days ago, I asked “Does Google’s “Dont Be Evil” Apply in China?”

I just found out that, coincidentally (I’m sure), that very same day Google’s own blog featured a pretty frank explanation of Google’s rationale for entering the Chinese market and complying with the Chinese government’s insistence that Google assist in censoring search results. (Apparently their main search site, Google.com, while available to users anywhere in the world, works pretty poorly for folks in China. Hence the need to have a local presence and a dedicated Chinese search site.)

Here are a couple of snippets, but it’s worth reading their whole explanation.

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.