Cross Cultural Perspectives

Cross Cultural Perspectives
Joseph N. Flowers Jr.
ETH 316
February 2nd, 2014
Robert Sharpe














Cross Cultural Perspective
Google is a multinational company founded by two Stanford University students in the 90's. It is an online services company which runs the most dominant search engine on the internet. Google's server's amount to number at about a million located in data centers around the world processing about 3.5 billion search requests a day ("Google Search Statistics", 2015). The power of google is that it brings information and knowledge to the user in seconds. This is especially important when it comes to current events around the world where things like terror attacks or natural disasters can be researched as soon as someone posts information about it on the internet. This is a great asset to the world in my opinion knowledge is indeed power and should be shared with everyone but not everyone shares my view.
It's been said that google and other search engine companies will soon scan copyrighted books and offer them free for download. This brings into light an ethical question. Google was threatened to be sued if they make good on their promises of copyrighted book scanning. Would it be ethical to scan and download copyrighted books? From Google's ethical perspective it would be beneficial from an education standpoint to allow people to read just about any and every book ever made for free. On the other hand what would this do to the books industry? How would authors get paid? Who among us has not shared a book with a friend? Google has a lot of friends or users and it also stands to make a big profit. After all I'm betting Google would have no problem buying one version of every book.
I use this issue as a preface to the question, how much information is too much? Yes Google scanning books will affect the world and I think for the better but is that the reason Google would do it or is it simply for monetary reasons. No matter the reason one cannot deny the benefits. Recently the United States government tried to obtain search records from Google in order to stop children's access to porn. Google fought that by saying that giving them the information would infringe on the rights of its users. Again who is right? How much information is too much when we are talking about children's safety? From Google's ethical perspective it is their duty to protect the rights of their users. Though it may seem that the porn issue is sort of an overkill issue to stand your ground on, it may set a precedent to stop the government from further infringement attempts. Once you allow them in any further attempts to stop them would be referenced with "We've done it before". I bring up the issue of the American government because of the scolding the American government gave Google on its recent dealings with China.
This sentiment of user loyalty through Google's motto of "Don't be evil" was present internationally when Google China was founded. The Chinese government who is certainly stricter than the United States government started blocking sites that it deemed menacing and unworthy of China. Largely those sites represented opposing parties or groups of people protesting the Chinese government for one reason or another. From an American standpoint this is pure censorship and denial of rights by the Chinese government in order to control their citizens. Chinese people by and large were also upset with the blockings. Google is an American made company and American takes freedom of speech very seriously. Imagine being able to rewrite history. Anything and everything that you feel casts a dark light on your country would simply disappear. In China this means that things like the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989 cannot be found on Google China. There is a lack of information on the Chinese government's repression of "Tibet" and "Falun Gong" also ("Google's China Problem (and China's Google Problem)" 2006).
As I alluded to earlier the American government did not find Google China's censorship funny. That was to be expected. What wasn't expected was Google's total cooperation in censorship that I found a surprise, at least at first. Soon after the word spread to the United States about Google's cooperation with China. Google's headquarters in California were protested and Google's stock fell. A company that adopts a motto of "Don't be evil" and then goes into business with a repressive regime I believe deserves for its stock to fall. I believe blocking horrible incidents that happened in history can be considered, well evil or at least morally wrong. Of course Google had to do something, they couldn't let this stand. The view of the world is very important to a company and Google is not the only search engine out there. The last thing they need is for the world to stop using Google just to prove a point.
This is where we get into a very interesting turn of events that only happens after Google was pressured by falling stocks and angry protesters. Google decided to stop using the mainland site and begin redirecting anyone who typed the domain name for it to a website located in Hong Kong ("Chinese Government Not Happy with Google.cn Redirect.", 2010). By doing this Google could stop filtering its content based on Chinese law but still provide a website accessible to the Chinese people. China responded by not allowing Google to renew its licensing agreements with them. Google in turn responded by offering a link just below the Google.cn search to the Google.hk for the Hong Kong site ("Chinese Government Not Happy with Google.cn Redirect.", 2010). The link for Google.hk still remains there 5 years later. But one could ask is this enough? After all what if China decides that it will keep tabs on the people who are going to the HK site and not directly searching on the CN site. So far no evidence to that is apparent however China's willingness to let the HK site stay seems to be a little be too easy. Earlier today I went on to Google.cn and instead of clicking to go to the HK I decided to use the mainland search and to my surprise I was able to look up "Falun Gong".
Though I am not sure if China knows that the auto direct is back up or not, I believe that Google is admirable for sticking to its guns and for not only adding the link to Google.hk but making so that Google.cn redirects to Google.hk again. I believe that I would have done the same thing or I would have not dealt with China at all.
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References
Chinese Government Not Happy With Google.cn Redirect. (2010) (n.d.). Retrieved February 4,
2015, from http://chinadivide.com/2010/chinese-government-not-happy-with-google-
cn- redirect.html
Google Search Statistics. (n.d.). Retrieved February 4, 2015, from
http://www.internetlivestats.com/google-search-statistics/
Thompson, C. (2006, April 22). Google's China Problem (and China's Google Problem).
Retrieved February 4, 2015, from
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/magazine/23google.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0





















Cross Cultural Perspectives