WaPo: Google’s Censorship for China ‘Evil,’ ‘Bad for Business’

In an article for the Washington Post, Thursday, columnist Josh Rogin claimed Google’s partnership with the Chinese government for censored search is “evil” and “bad for business.”

This week it was reported that Google was compiling a blacklist from user data for their censored Chinese search engine, which employees were ordered to “keep quiet about.”

“Google is proposing a new Faustian bargain with the Chinese government that isn’t just morally wrong; it’s also terrible for business,” declared Rogin in his Washington Post article titled, “Google’s China plan isn’t just evil — it’s bad for business.”

“Experience has shown that American tech companies that sell their souls for access to the Chinese market also end up losing their shirts,” he continued, adding, “It’s shocking to learn that the company whose motto was ‘Don’t be evil’ has been caught compiling user data to create blacklists.”

“If Google does launch a censored search engine, it will be complicit in mass surveillance, broad Orwellian social control and the suppression of free speech,” Rogin proclaimed. “But that’s not the only reason Google’s foray into China is so disastrous. The company would be placing its people and its assets at huge risk by putting its future in the hands of the Chinese government. The record shows that rarely works out well.”