The main ethical issue to this story is the following: what сan we say about Google as a company with respect to its decision to move to a country with strict censorship policy. Will doing business there help to protect Chinese people’s rights and freedoms or is it just because of the possibility to enlarge target audience and thus increase profits?
Let’s think it over.
Many criticisms rose against this step of Google to provide censorship for search results in China – it was exactly opposite to their motto “Do No Evil” and their policy. Meeting the Chinese government requirements the company showed disregard to their own corporate mission in order to get profits. Such resulted in slow functionality of the web site as well and consequently
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In this case, our stakeholders are as follows:
1) Google Inc. – Google is first and foremost a business and its primary goal is to make money. But the company also should take into account the reputation factors that could have negative effect because of moving to China. They had their reputation on stake. Their main purpose is to provide information to people but they went against this principle and violated the human right for freedom of
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If the answer is “no” to both questions, Donaldson would states that the practice is probably ethical.
If at least one answer is “yes”, then practice is impossible (Donaldson, 2003).
Ethical conflict between Google Inc. and the Chinese government is based not on economic differences, but on cultural and political issues. Thereby, we have the second type of conflict.
Was is possible for Google Inc. to make business successfully without following Chinese business practice? – No. Without meeting government’s requirements it wasn’t possible to enter the Chinese market.
Did such business practice violate human rights and values? – Yes. Following the business rules in Chine and providing censorship on search results, Google limited the access to information and we know that according to the “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” (article 19).
Since there is 1 answer “yes”, undertaking the practice from the ethical aspect is impossible.
As a conclusion, the net effects of Google.cn are most definitely, and undeniably, negative. Google has suppressed the freedom of information of an entire nation. The actions of Google can no longer be viewed as