Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/08/03/project-dragonfly.html
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"Don’t be evil. Or do. Whatever."
-Google’s amended motto, 2018
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When do they plan to start “Project Stop Being Assholes”?
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… with many of the key people involved off on summer holidays.
That must be nice. Shame it was ruined. Not quite a crying shame, but certainly some sniffles.
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Lots of other companies do business in China, and play by Chinese rules. Why should google be different?
I generally agree, but doing business in China can often mean various things; selling products, for example, mostly means working through a Chinese company as your local business front/etc.
There’s an arguable ethical line to be drawn somewhere along the path to aiding and abetting practices that many of us find repugnant. It’s a grey area for sure, but I don’t think that people being uncomfortable and upset with companies doing business directly supporting things that are awful is that weird or hypocritical.
Case in point: there was a huge uproar at Microsoft when rumors began spreading that MS was using Cloud and AI tech to support ICE facial recognition efforts, but most people aren’t upset at Microsoft having a service contract with them. On the other hand, some people are - it’s a bit of a bell curve on any of this stuff, because honestly some people are going to be outraged no matter what, and some won’t be upset at all, and everyone else fits somewhere in the middle.
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Because they are clearly helping to build an unethical tool, helping a despotic government to erase freedom of expression ???
I’m glad to see that some have expressed their concern, and are not just mindlessly participating in the oppression of Chinese people.
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Because that’s even worse than the infamous “just following orders” excuse?
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If you live in a country where your politicans are bought and sold then it is inevitable that one day China will be the purchaser.
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There’s a significant difference between playing by Chinese rules in order to do business in China and enabling the Chinese to enforce those rules being your business.
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