What should Google do?
INSTRUCTIONS: The below left-side column contains the article about Google we read during in week 1 (separated into 4 parts). Read the article and answer the questions at the right.
Why Google Should Stay Out of China
Michael Posner
August 7, 2018
1. A decade ago, a group of Internet companies, civil society organizations, academics, and investors launched the Global Network Initiative (GNI), a collaborative effort to promote free expression and protect user privacy on the Internet. Google helped lead this effort and a parallel project devoted to developing a human rights framework for the Internet. In 2010, Google further demonstrated its leadership by making a principled decision to withdraw its search-engine services from China. In a very public way, the company acknowledged the inherent contradiction between Chinese Internet censorship and Google’s commitments to its users and the GNI to promote free expression. It was thus disturbing to read recent reports suggesting that Google now is seriously considering re-entering the Chinese market and succumbing to Chinese censorship in exchange for commercial opportunity. Q 1. What moral theory is mentioned in the paragraph 1 (to the right)?
Q 2. Which other moral theory studied in this course could be used to defend the GNI collaborative effort?
2. Strict Chinese government regulation of the Internet is nothing new. Through what’s known as the Great Firewall, the government imposes strict constraints on what Chinese citizens can read or discuss when they go online. Since the crackdown against peaceful protestors on June 4, 1989, Chinese censors strictly control any mention of June 4 or Tiananmen Square. They block the websites of international human rights organizations and mainstream news organizations like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. The government reportedly employs 30,000 people or more to maintain this Orwellian system of absolute control. No other government in the world invests more time or money than the Chinese to control the online content or to stifle dissent. Q3. Identify a human right violated by China’s Great Firewall policy in paragraph 2.
