Google Regrets Being Evil in Red China
But Google’s founders don’t regret being evil because of moral principles.
It’s about the bottom line [emphasis added]:
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."
So, they don’t regret being evil because they’ve helped a communist regime
oppress their people, they regret being evil because it affected their profit
margins.
No word yet on whether Google regrets being evil by supporting jihadi propaganda
and suppressing American counter-propaganda on their popular YouTube subsidiary.
Maybe they’ll decide after YouTube’s next profit and loss statement.
Posting date: 5/Feb/2007
Original article date: 27/Jan/2007
Category: Media Report