[This article is cross-posted at gwcyberlaw.org, an organization I am involved with at GW's law school]
By now I’m sure about everyone with any interest in technology has heard about Google’s China policy changes. To be honest, I’m not quite sure what to make of it. Google has trailed Baidu in shares of the Chinese search market, which might lead some to argue that the move to lift censorship is a PR stunt designed to cover a retreat from the Chinese market. I don’t buy that.
The “hack attack” reasoning likewise doesn’t quite add up. How does getting attacked logically lead to removing censoring restrictions on search results? Even if the attackers were after dissident emails, the connection isn’t clear. There were reports that the attacks might have involved insiders, but that is certainly nothing new for large organizations. Does Google believe the Chinese government is deliberately targeting and infiltrating Google? Maybe I’m missing something?
Google has their “do no evil” motto and seems to generally try to keep their operations socially beneficial, but they certainly aren’t censorship saints. They have allegedly censored news results, search results, and sponsored links even in the US and UK. Why the sudden change of heart? It makes no sense that a for-profit corporation, even an altruistic one, would do what Google is apparently doing for the reasons they cite.
My feeling is that there is a lot more to this that will come to light over the coming months. We’ll see.
