Just yesterday, Google released an announcement that it may consider withdrawing itself from China in light of the Chinese government's censorship policies. Google had suffered backlash in 2006 when it agreed to censor its results in China, so many praised Google for finally standing up to the Chinese government. Others see it as a last-ditch attempt to salvage some good press out of a poor branch (Google has struggled to increase market share past 25-30% in China, and Google could rebuild what reputation it lost in 2006).
Whatever Google's motives, it brings up the interesting point of morality in business, and in design. Matt Parkinson spoke last quarter about designing for human variability, and how design may result in disproportionate exclusion of certain demographics. As designers, we need to ask ourselves the question: is the greater evil for a designer to do work he opposes, or to deprive end users of the value the designer could have added?
One of Google's 10 "commandments" is to "Do no evil". Is censorship evil, though? Regulation of information occurs in parental control, and website age restrictions, and fewer people argue against it. It might be argued that censorship is a sub-optimal solution due to the net reduction in available information--sub-optimal, however, is not evil. I personally contend that Google censored in China is better than no Google in China.
Let's hear from you: when faced with a situation where there may be no perfect solutions, what and how do we prioritize?
1 comment:
I agree with you, and believe Google should stay in China even if it is censored. I recently listened to a podcast of NPR's On the Media where they talked about Google in China and said it was a constant struggle back and forth between the company and the government over sensoring. In the states, Google essentially lets the people decide what is inappropriate by letting them report pages they have a problem with and having staff review reports with enough outcry. While this sounds like a good practice, it is impossible in China, so they have to adapt. By pulling Google out of China, not only will they be depriving the citizens of all that Google offers, as you say, but they will be losing tons of money in potential profits. I understand that Google's mantra is "Do no Evil," and censoring might be considered evil, but I believe that striking a balance between providing its services and placating the government would work out best for all involved.
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