Musings of the Great Eric

Brin says Google compromised principles:

Meeting with reporters near Capitol Hill, Brin said Google had agreed to the censorship demands only after Chinese authorities blocked its service in that country. Google’s rivals accommodated the same demands — which Brin described as “a set of rules that we weren’t comfortable with” — without international criticism, he said.

“We felt that perhaps we could compromise our principles but provide ultimately more information for the Chinese and be a more effective service and perhaps make more of a difference,” Brin said.

Brin said Google is trying to improve its censored search service, Google.cn, before deciding whether to reverse course. He said virtually all the company’s customers in China use the non-censored service.

What I’d love to see is all the US tech companies pull out of China. China needs Google a lot more than the other way around; it’d be nice if they actually pushed China to take some steps towards a more open and free society. Maybe I’m being overly optomistic to even hope for such a thing.

Technorati Tags: Google, China, Censorship, Free Speech