"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Saturday, January 27, 2007

GOOGLE REGRETS ALLOWING CENSORSHIP IN CHINA

Even though no blogger could live without Google it has been pretty apparent to conservatives that they seem to have a liberal bias. Go here, here and here. This bias extends to Youtube which Google owns.

Yet probably their biggest controversy by far was their announcement back in 2005 that they would be online in China but would allow there to be censorship. Amazingly the co-founders of Google are admitting that was probably a mistake. Here is an excerpt of some of their comments:
Asked whether he regretted the decision, Mr Brin admitted yesterday: "On a business level, that decision to censor... was a net negative."

The company has only once expressed any regret and never in as strong terms as yesterday. Mr Brin said the company had suffered because of the damage to its reputation in the US and Europe.

Last year in a speech in Washington Mr Brin admitted the company had been forced to compromise its principles to operate in China. At the time, he also hinted at a potential reversal of its stance in the country, saying "perhaps now the principled approach makes more sense."
It is amazing how once one loses money all of a sudden having some principles seems like a good idea.

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