Good for Google! Finally someone has shown the courage to realise that markets aren’t everything and that companies also have a social duty. Western companies have been so enamoured of the Chinese market for decades, they haven’t thought twice about bowing down to the Chinese government. Rupert Murdoch accepted censorship and, in order to please the Chinese government, even refused to publish Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten’s book. In more recent times, internet companies allowed the Chinese government to track down well-known dissidents who were using their email accounts.
Collaborating with authorities is nothing new — IBM’s role in helping Hitler exterminate the Jews is well documented. So it is very good to know that Google has finally decided to go along with its conscience instead of, like it did till recently, offer different maps and photographs on its Chinese site. Visitors on Google China will finally know there was a massacre at a place called Tiananmen Square!
It is time others followed suit now.
Ravi Oberoi, New Delhi
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