OBLIGATIONS TO MACHINES

I have recieved numerous requests to publicly comment on the Google scandal in China. As always, Ars Technica gives the best commentary on this issue, and I agree with their analysis. The scandal, of course, is not with Google’s business practices; the outrage is a result of people realizing that Google is a business in the first place.

I wrote the following email to a colleague in response to one such request:

Man, you are like the third person to tell me to post something about
this. I really dont think this has much to do with Google at all-
Microsoft has been in China for a year now abiding by the local
censorship laws, and no one has said squat.

I’ve ALWAYS held the position that Google is a company first and
foremost, and regardless of what its policy says (ie, “Dont be evil”),
its first priority is to make money. I don’t see any contradiction in
its acting by the laws of the local government, even when those laws
are unjust. As popular and powerful as Google is, it can’t stare down
a row of tanks.

Kyle responded:

“Microsoft has been in China for a year now abiding by the local
censorship laws, and no one has said squat.”

A sort of third-person version of the ‘tu quouqe’ fallacy. Nice.

“I’ve ALWAYS held the position that Google is a company first and
foremost, and regardless of what its policy says (ie, “Dont be evil”),
its first priority is to make money.”

Having, as one’s first priority, the making of money so radically
underdetermines the courses of action one might take, that your premise
hardly provides any information at all, much less something like implication
that the chosen course was the right one. Such an argument, were it valid,
would legitimate all sorts of international rapine of poor and
disenfranchised peoples who happen to live under unjust regimes. IBM made a
lot of money customizing tabulating machines and punch cards to help Germans
keep those Jews in the lines they needed to be in.

I responded thusly:

I’m not arguing that because microsoft did it its ok. I was making the
point that this isn’t about Google, even though the media is playing
it that way. The outrage is properly directed at China’s censorship
laws, and you can’t fault Google for trying to make a buck in a
country that has such laws. From Google’s perspective, it is either
abide by the laws of the country or get shut down completely. It is
the rational choice, given its status as a corporation, and with its
obligations to its stock holders, that it proceed with business under
the laws of the land in which it conducts business.

Google of course takes this line, and are trying to spin it by saying
that it is better for the freedom of information that at least some
info gets through, and as the technology of the internet becomes more
commonplace in China perhaps these laws will be changed by the people.
That may be disingenuous, but it surely isn’t false.

For the record, Google already censors information in these free
united states. Scroll to the bottom of this page.

I am not arguing that China is right, though I find the Nazi
comparison extreme in these circumstances. But it is simply incorrect
to say that Google’s stance with regard to these matters is
hypocritical. It was a sensible business practice to refuse our
government access to the personal information of its users, and it is
a sensible business practice to follow the information laws while
conducting business in China.

The blogosphere is rife with criticism that this damages Google’s
reputation as a do-gooder in a sea of evil corporations. I am merely
making the point that it was a mistake to trust Google as a business
in the first place. I will also point out that skepticism with regard
to authority is healthy; you can’t believe everything an expert tells
you. If anything, this case secures Google’s status as an agent by
reinforcing its fallibility.

I am a big fan of Google as the first widely used artificial member of our linguistic community, and it has succeeded beyond expectations in filling that role. As such, Google serves as the most convincing and familiar example that supports my general thesis, and so I talk about it a lot. It deserves to be talked about alot.

But I don’t want this post, or any of my previous posts, to sound like a blanket defense of Google’s actions. Google is an agent, with its own incentives, motivations, weaknesses, and decisions. Perhaps this was the wrong decision, perhaps not; that is ultimately for Google’s users to decide.