China needs to google ethics; company made a noble stand

[megri]

Google rocked the business world last month with its announcement that it would no longer accept the censorship of search results on its Chinese search engine, Google.cn. The bold move has renewed the ongoing debate about Internet freedom and how foreign companies should do business in China. Yet, despite the fact that some have doubted whether Google’s actions are entirely motivated by a humanitarian impulse, the example they have set could serve as a beacon for those fighting for the free dissemination of information around the world.

In a posting on the company’s official blog called “A new approach to China,” Google’s Chief Legal Officer David Drummond wrote that the company had “detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China” and that it believes the goal of the attack was to infiltrate the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. For this reason, the company would review its business dealings in China to attempt to find a “basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all.”

This is a reversal of the company’s earlier policy of allowing its search engine to operate in China with some censorship. That decision raised ire in human rights circles, whereas this new move is being applauded.
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