Jim Harper brings some sense to the Google-China imbroglio:

Google’s decision to censor search results in China in order to gain entry into the Chinese market is not the preferable state of affairs. Lovers of freedom deplore state censorship wherever and whenever it happens. But the company is not evil — and its compromise is better than not doing business in China at all.

Let’s say a contractor had the tools and materials to build the sturdiest modern structure, but the local building code required less-than-perfect construction. Would putting up a structure as required by local code be “evil”? Nothing of the sort.

By their logic, though, critics of Google’s engagement with China would rather see people freeze in the cold than take shelter in substandard housing.

[...]

Google says it discloses to users when it returns censored results, which signals to Chinese users that they do not live in a free country. That’s a useful byproduct of Google’s unfortunate cooperation with the Chinese. Just as importantly, the search engine will expose the Chinese people to a world of information and ideas, including the value and strength of freedom.

Criticism of Google for making this difficult compromise is misplaced. It takes attention away from the responsible party: the government of China, which unforgivably retains a deadly Communist ideology.

Google may not be the tool the Chinese people will use to bring the Communist regime to an end, but it will be the soil in which their awareness and desire for freedom will continue to grow. Engaging with China is not evil. It is good.

Yahoo turning in dissidents, or Fortune magazine fawning over the Chinese Communist Party are inarguaby evil. For that, let’s give ‘em hell.

But what Google’s doing is entirely different. It’s making information availabe that wouldn’ t otherwise be accessible by the Chinese. In this case, something is most certainly better than nothing. The blogosphere’s condemnation of Google on this issue is way overblown and, unfortunately, stereotypically blogosphere-ian.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 25th, 2006 at 12:06 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.