Google: “Lofty ideals meet reality”
Wednesday, February 1st, 2006That’s what the S.F. Chronicle concludes.
Today’s paper reports: “‘Don’t be evil’ is a hard motto to live up to. Just ask Google Inc., which now finds itself in an ethical dilemma, stuck between its idealistic corporate philosophy of doing no harm and its business goals of expanding in China.”
The company’s recent decision to censor search results in China that the Beijing government deems subversive is causing major headaches for the wildly successful online search company, including requests to appear on Capitol Hill. A briefing with the congressional Human Rights Caucus about online censorship in China is scheduled for today, though Google representatives have declined to attend.
As the picture above shows, a handful of protesters have assembled. But hardly a groundswell. Where’s everybody hiding? Maybe tired out from yesterday.
“It’s a shame that Google’s promising vision of corporate governance and ethics gets exposed as hypocritical so quickly,” said David Vogel, professor of business ethics at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.
Tisk, tisk.
But maybe earnings are more important to Google than ethics.
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