Het had zo mooi kunnen zijn. ‘s-Werelds meest gebruikte zoekmachine, te machtig voor de communistische partij dat zij content niet zouden hoeven te censoreren. Helaas. Het verhaal is maar al te bekend. Google.cn is zwaar gecensoreerd om te voldoen aan de eisen van de communistische partij in China. Recentelijk gaf Brin aan dat hij daar toch veel moeite mee heeft:
“Google Inc. co-founder Sergey Brin acknowledged Tuesday the dominant Internet company has compromised its principles by accommodating Chinese censorship demands. He said Google is wrestling to make the deal work before deciding whether to reverse course.
Meeting with reporters near Capitol Hill, Brin said Google had agreed to the censorship demands only after Chinese authorities blocked its service in that country.
…Google’s China-approved Web service omits politically sensitive information that might be retrieved during Internet searches, such as details about the 1989 suppression of political unrest in Tiananmen Square. Its agreement with China has provoked considerable criticism from human rights groups.
“Perhaps now the principled approach makes more sense,” Brin said….Brin said Google is trying to improve its censored search service, Google.cn, before deciding whether to reverse course. He said virtually all the company’s customers in China use the non-censored service.
“It’s perfectly reasonable to do something different, to say, ‘Look, we’re going to stand by the principle against censorship and we won’t actually operate there.’ That’s an alternate path,” Brin said. “It’s not where we chose to go right now, but I can sort of see how people came to different conclusions about doing the right thing.” [bron]
5 weken geleden zei CEO Eric Schmidt nog iets geheel anders…. Hij zei dat Google geen enkele intentie heeft om de regels van de Communistische Partij te omzeilen:
Google has no intention of confronting China’s ruling Communist Party over online restrictions.
