Google versus China
Google versus China
1. Did Google have an ethical right to renege on its agreement in 2010 by directing its Chinese users to the uncensored search engine Google.com.hk?
As far as I am concerned, Google didn’t have the ethical right to direct its Chinese users to the uncensored search engine. First of all, when Google began to operate in China in 2006, it signed the contract to agree to censor information from sensitive topics related to politics and illegal information that had been banned from Chinese government. However, Google has violated the agreement by operating Google.com.hk search engine which is not subject to Chinese government censorship. This action of breaking the contract is forbidden by ethics. Further, every multinational corporations should do the research of foreign countries’ laws and regulations and abide by them. Google has violated the regulations when setting the uncensored research engines in Hong Kong. Last but not least, although Hong Kong is a special administrative region, Beijing does have the ultimate authority in Hong Kong despite the separate legal system. Beijing could actually exercise the power to curtail certain kinds of political activity. But it didn’t happen in this case. That didn’t mean Google had the ethical right to renege on its agreement.
2. Should Google be concerned about the type of information that users access through the various Google search engines?
Google should be concerned about the type of information that user access. Because the revenue is from selling the advertisement, Google plays the role of intermediary that between the seller and users. Therefore, Google has the responsibility to check whether the information provided by the seller is true and fair. If the seller provides false information about their products and pays Google most advertise fees in order to be shown on the top list when users search such kind of information, it could severely make the adverse impact on the users’
1. Did Google have an ethical right to renege on its agreement in 2010 by directing its Chinese users to the uncensored search engine Google.com.hk?
As far as I am concerned, Google didn’t have the ethical right to direct its Chinese users to the uncensored search engine. First of all, when Google began to operate in China in 2006, it signed the contract to agree to censor information from sensitive topics related to politics and illegal information that had been banned from Chinese government. However, Google has violated the agreement by operating Google.com.hk search engine which is not subject to Chinese government censorship. This action of breaking the contract is forbidden by ethics. Further, every multinational corporations should do the research of foreign countries’ laws and regulations and abide by them. Google has violated the regulations when setting the uncensored research engines in Hong Kong. Last but not least, although Hong Kong is a special administrative region, Beijing does have the ultimate authority in Hong Kong despite the separate legal system. Beijing could actually exercise the power to curtail certain kinds of political activity. But it didn’t happen in this case. That didn’t mean Google had the ethical right to renege on its agreement.
2. Should Google be concerned about the type of information that users access through the various Google search engines?
Google should be concerned about the type of information that user access. Because the revenue is from selling the advertisement, Google plays the role of intermediary that between the seller and users. Therefore, Google has the responsibility to check whether the information provided by the seller is true and fair. If the seller provides false information about their products and pays Google most advertise fees in order to be shown on the top list when users search such kind of information, it could severely make the adverse impact on the users’