Let’s Hear it for Google

There’s an important event going on right now in the world of business and we should all pay attention, as it poses a threat to free speech, and indeed, freedom itself.

America was built around the concept of free speech and free enterprise, and our country is a beacon to the world when it comes to those principles. Underpinning the great free enterprise system are the basics of ethics and integrity. Companies create “mission statements” and usually start out with clear, concise and admirable standards, usually revolving around “making the world a better place.” Yet without these basic tenants, companies lose their way.

It is refreshing to see companies who stick to those beliefs. One such example today is Google. Google’s mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

The company veered from its basic tenants, however, when it entered China and agreed to censor its search requests.

From a January 2007 article:

Google’s decision to censor its search engine in China was bad for the company, its founders admitted yesterday.

Google, launched in 1998 by two Stanford University dropouts, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, was accused of selling out and reneging on its “Don’t be evil” motto when it launched in China in 2005. The company modified the version of its search engine in China to exclude controversial topics such as the Tiananmen Square massacre or the Falun Gong movement, provoking a backlash in its core western markets.

Asked whether he regretted the decision, Mr Brin admitted yesterday: “On a business level, that decision to censor… was a net negative.”

Last year in a speech in Washington Mr Brin admitted the company had been forced to compromise its principles to operate in China. At the time, he also hinted at a potential reversal of its stance in the country, saying “perhaps now the principled approach makes more sense”.

Three years later, that day has come. Google decided to return to its core principles and stop censoring its internet searches in China. Google should be applauded loudly for its actions and willingness to put principles over potential profit.

Following the decision to stop censoring search results in China, Google co-founder Sergey Brin said in a March 25 interview with the U.K. newspaper The Guardian that the U.S. government and other businesses should put a “high priority” on calling attention to human-rights abuses in China.

Google’s actions have been met with countermeasures by the communist government. There are forbidden topics, such as the pro-democracy movement, information about the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests and other politically sensitive topics.

China’s maneuver, as well as its public rebuke of Google’s decision to stop censoring searches for the government, rattled some of the company’s investors, advertisers and users. The chief concern is whether Google poisoned its business in one of the world’s most promising internet markets. One analyst, critical of Google’s move, predicted the maneuver will cause the company’s stock to fall by as much as $50 — or about 10 percent — in the coming weeks.

How unfortunate.

Google is stepping up a campaign to get other companies and the U.S. government to join it in putting pressure on China’s government over alleged human rights violations.

One company did just that, and some U.S. government officials have championed Google’s cause. The web search company may make limited headway, however. The US State Department raised objections about how Google was treated and then largely dropped the matter. And there’s unlikely to be a groundswell of businesses willing to take public issue with China, the world’s most populous country and third-largest economy.

“Just because the situation got bad for you doesn’t mean it’s bad for everybody else,” says Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of the Web site Search Engine Land.

Some politicians applauded Google’s move. “Google, more than any other business or force, has been the game-changer,” says Representative Chris Smith (R-N.J.) in an interview.

Now is the time for more American leaders to vocally support Google. After all, this is an American company! Where is the loud chorus of support for free speech and adoration for doing the right thing? Is the almighty dollar more important than principles? Hopefully not. Consider that the Bible speaks to compromised principles for the sake of profit. Proverbs 1:19 says “Such is the end of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the lives who get it.”

Google has gone out on a limb and needs others to be brave, support them and follow suit. If America is willing to go to war in an effort to “export democracy” all over the world, why can’t we at least stand up for a brave and noble act in the name of freedom? Are we really willing to turn a blind eye on human rights oppression because of the size of the market?

Brad Bradley is the former CEO of Senderra Funding in Charlotte, North Carolina. He now runs a private investment company and is President of CJS and a member of the CJS Board of Directors.

The CJS Forum seeks to promote an open exchange of ideas about the relationship between faith, culture, law and public policy. While all the articles are original and written especially for the CJS Forum, they do not necessarily reflect the views of the Center for a Just Society.

Picture above from flickr user Yodel Anecdotal licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 License.