
Google Censorship Plan Is “Not Right” and “Stupid,” Says Former Google Manager - parvenu74
https://theintercept.com/2018/08/10/google-censorship-plan-is-not-right-and-stupid-says-former-google-head-of-free-expression/
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mc32
Google going in to China doesn't change anything in China itself. They will
only be allowed back in under CCP-imposed terms. So I disagree that this is
bad from that PoV.

The PoV where this does become bad is where we might see an influence in other
markets seeing this capitulation by Google and then also requiring censorship
in their terms. And not necessarily the Irans or NKs of the world, but the
likes of India, Brazil, etc. who might see value in requiring some censorship.

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intro-b
Part of the One Belt One Road initiative is not only the development of
economic and trade ties, but the projection of the idea that more
authoritarian, centrally-governed forms of government that de-emphasize tenets
like freedom of political criticism are valid ways to rule a country in the
21st century, and that adhering to this system, as opposed to general western
liberalism, could have major economic advantages to countries willing to play
China's game.

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slededit
Google is not happy with admitting they've plateau'd in their growth. They are
willing to compromise their values to grow at any cost.

They've systematically watered down and walked back from all the things they
said they would adhere to in their IPO prospectus:

Our mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally
accessible and useful. We believe that the most effective, and ultimately the
most profitable, way to accomplish our mission is to put the needs of our
users first. We have found that offering a high-quality user experience leads
to increased traffic and strong word-of-mouth promotion. Our dedication to
putting users first is reflected in three key commitments we have made to our
users:

    
    
     	• We will do our best to provide the most relevant and useful search results possible, independent of financial incentives. Our search results will be objective and we will not accept payment for inclusion or ranking in them.
     
    
     	• We will do our best to provide the most relevant and useful advertising. Whenever someone pays for something, we will make it clear to our users. Advertisements should not be an annoying interruption.
     
    
     	• We will never stop working to improve our user experience, our search technology and other important areas of information organization.
     
    

We believe that our user focus is the foundation of our success to date. We
also believe that this focus is critical for the creation of long-term value.
We do not intend to compromise our user focus for short-term economic gain.

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bitmapbrother
>Google is not happy with admitting they've plateau'd in their growth

Google made 8 billion in profit last quarter. To claim that they've _plateau
'd in their growth_ is ridiculous. Apple and Microsoft have been in China for
some time and it would be foolish for Google, from a business perspective, to
not do business in one the biggest markets in the world.

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slededit
They've plateaud while sticking to their values. This growth is coming at the
cost of what originally made them great. It may be that times have changed -
but it's more likely the MBAs are just milking it and slowly squeezing out the
original magic. Eventually the patient dies.

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bitmapbrother
>They've plateaud while sticking to their values.

They earned 6 billion more in Q2 2018 than they did in Q2 2017. Like I said,
to suggest they've plateaued _while sticking to their values_ is ridiculous.

 _Alphabet reported revenue of $26.24 billion after accounting for traffic-
acquisition costs, up from $20.91 billion in the second quarter of 2017 and
higher than the average analyst estimate of $25.58 billion._

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redahs
I assume that once Google has made investments in China which it does not wish
to risk losing due to state interference, we can expect the Chinese government
to start asking them to censor search results in western countries which
indicate that Taiwan is a sovereign nation?

It has already successfully pressured US airlines to do this.

