Google Bans Military Space Site for China

Kelly writes “The company whose motto is, “Do No Evil,” seems to be doing it. They have banned an Australian military space news site, delisting it from their search index, to make happy the Chinese commie government, which doesn’t like the articles the site publishes at spacewar.com The really interesting question in wake of this is: does it signals a trend – will Google delist other news and other types of sites at a government’s behest? For longer-term and out-of-the-box strategic business thinkers, perhaps this will later morph into Google’s offering to delist sites for a fee. Where will it stop? Here’s a statement about Google’s action from Spacewar“

February 25, 2006 by Uncategorized 1

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1 Response

  1. Anonymous Patron says:
    February 25, 2006 at 10:05 am

    We’ve had these discussions before…
    You need to follow the law in whatever country you’re doing business in. In the case of china, it’s censorship. In France and Germany, no Nazi stuff. In the case of the US, no child porn (and probably soon other things). That’s the price of doing business. And *not* playing in the Chinese market means cutting off potentially 1/6th of the total consumers – Google is unlikely to take that stand.

    Especially if you’re looking at the mid to long-term. China has much of the real assets. As soon as people figure out that the US economy is a house of cards (with a rotten trade balance, huge deficits, no real backing, etc), it will come tumbling down. Heck, China could do it in a heartbeat by just withholding production for a month. Or calling in our debts with them.

    So, point being: You need to follow the law. The law sucks, but many laws do. Deal.

    — Ender, Duke_of_URL

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