Google vs China

With Darcy gone this week, I figured I'd make a second post, this time on a real issue, not something often done here, but relevant nonetheless. Google, in a response to what they claim was an attack from inside China, has stopped censoring their searches in accordance with Chinese guidelines. How noble of them.

First off I have to say that it disgusts me to think that in this day and age we have government agencies deciding what information people can and cannot have access to. We're not talking about how to create date rape drugs or where to pick up children, we're talking about public events that the Chinese government doesn't want their own population to know about; searches on things like Tibet are not allowed for gods sake, that's paramount to not being able to Google Afghanistan here in Canada or, even better analogy, Iraq in the United States. Some people say information is power, but I say it's life, and everyone is entitled to life.

Having said that, lets not forget who and what Google is. The can preach about the ethics and censorship all they want, but they're not doing anything out of the goodness of their corporate hearts. If Google is taking moral high ground you can bet it's because they couldn't reach those ripe juicy $100 bills at the top of the tree from where they were standing, and they really want that money. Causing a stir like this will only serve to publicize them more and eventually draw in bigger numbers, at home if not abroad, and in the end money == money, regardless where it comes from.

I'm not naive and I don't pretend to think the world works like it should, if I've ever worn rose colored glasses I've so long since lost them that I don't even remember when I last had them, but I believe that good things can come from questionable events. If the Chinese hackers gave Google the excuse they needed to make a power grab thats all fine and well, because at the end of the day it means a little less control on information for China.

Let's just not forget that everything happens for a reason, and the big events always happen for gain and, in this case, it's Google who stands to gain the most.