• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Wednesday, August 10, 2022
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion

Impact of Google Returning to China Will Reach Beyond Chinese Market

Maria Repnikova by Maria Repnikova
08/18/18
in Opinion
A Chinese flag wavers in front of a Google building.

Google launched its China-based search page in 2006, but left the country four years later. Photo: AFP

233
SHARES
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

In the summer of 2008, when I interviewed for an internship at Google London headquarters, one of the questions was whether I would have supported Google’s entry into the Chinese market in 2006. This was two years prior to Google’s official and dramatic exit from China on account of ethical considerations.

My answer at the time was yes. I argued that some information access is better than none. In my view, the polarizing human rights narrative about the Chinese market is more concerned with our Western sensibilities than with the actual demands of Chinese citizens. While we want them to be liberated from the chains of the Communist Party, Chinese citizens may be more concerned with food safety, clean air, and consumer rights – information they may find on Google.

Eight years after its exit, Google faces a similar dilemma, but some things have changed. China’s tech sector became competitive on the global market and Chinese citizens experience more intensive censorship and surveillance than they had back in 2010. China became simultaneously more globalized and more closed. And American tech giants, including Google, are dealing with more regulations in Western markets and competition from Chinese artificial intelligence.

Once again, a number of human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International, but also Google’s own employees who have been kept in the dark about this project, are decrying this decision as unethical.

The ethical lines, however, remain blurry.

If we return to the perspectives of Chinese citizens, there are definite benefits to them from Google’s re-entry. It can provide an alternative to Baidu, the main Chinese search engine that monopolized the market. Baidu has been engulfed in a series of medical scandals recently that diminished public trust in the search engine that many already critique for its weak functionalities.

In 2016, it faced its biggest scandal yet: a young man died from a fake cancer treatment listed on Baidu. A poll on Weibo (China’s equivalent to Twitter) that has since been deleted, showed that the majority of respondents prefer Google over Baidu if Google were to become available.

How competitive Google would be over Baidu is unclear given that Baidu had a decade of experience over Google in the Chinese market and benefits from strong party linkages. But even if Google doesn’t manage to provide a significantly more attractive product, its presence would push Baidu to compete and become more transparent and publicly accountable. Baidu shares have already dropped since the Google news leaked out.

Ethical Concerns

The key ethical concern about Google’s re-entry at this particular juncture is not about the company disempowering Chinese citizens, but about setting a new precedent for global tech operations across the authoritarian spectrum. In contrast to eight years ago, China is not just a giant autocracy we hope would democratize one day, it is now an aspirational model for many countries with authoritarian inklings, and is a more active player in geopolitics.

If Google provides a censored engine to China, why wouldn’t other authoritarian countries that are increasingly importing Chinese censorship and surveillance technology, like Vietnam or Zimbabwe, not demand it as well? Or at the very least, require Google to localize data and empower surveillance indirectly?

When I was recently doing research in Ethiopia on China’s presence there, some officials in charge of media regulation told me they would like to design their own social media platforms so they could lure their users away from Facebook and Google. That ambition is hard to fulfill given their limited resources. But pushing global companies for altered versions or for more data storage may be more feasible.

Google, Facebook, and YouTube are already under constant pressure from governments around the world to remove content. Google’s re-entry into China would only increase the pressure to an unprecedented level the company might not anticipate.

As a vocal supporter of internet freedom agenda, by entering China, Google also automatically empowers the internet sovereignty policy or the idea that governments should be in charge of internet regulation. Does this matter if, as a recent article in Foreign Affairs argues, the future of the internet is already Chinese?

It does, because many other countries that are somewhere in between committing to open and borderless internet and treating the internet as primarily a government domain, would take the first option less serious given that one of the major American giants is ignoring it.

Of course, Google’s actual entry into the Chinese market is far from guaranteed. China’s party-state thus far has deliberately sheltered its tech sector from competition. Facebook was recently promised an entry, but then the government flipped. Google’s CEO just deflected public criticism with a non-committal remark about China entry. But getting to the heart of the ethical debate is still important. In contrast to eight years ago, the ethical decisions are now more globalized and will carry repercussions much beyond the Chinese market.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of The Globe Post.
Share233Tweet
Maria Repnikova

Maria Repnikova

Assistant Professor in Global Communication at Georgia State University and expert in China's political communication

Related Posts

Nancy Pelosi
World

Taiwan Defiant as China Readies Military Drills Over Pelosi Visit

by Staff Writer
August 3, 2022
Google logo
Business

Google to Pay $90 Mn in Settlement With App Developers

by Staff Writer
July 1, 2022
Apple
Business

Apple, Google, Other US Tech Titans Look to Ditch Passwords

by Staff Writer
May 5, 2022
China Muslim Uyghurs
Opinion

Unfair Politicization, Corruption, and the Death of Modern Olympism

by Jianli Yang
April 23, 2022
Chinese leader Xi Jinping
Opinion

How Wrong ‘How China Can End the War in Ukraine’ Is

by Yan Yu and Jianli Yang
April 1, 2022
Protestors hold signs as they gather during a rally for Uyghur Freedom
Featured

It’s Time We Give Corporations a Human Rights Scorecard

by Jianli Yang and Alvaro Piaggio
March 9, 2022
Next Post
A Muslim pilgrim in Mecca

More Than 2 Million Muslims Begin Hajj Pilgrimage

Anti-government protesters rally at Victoriei Square in front of government headquarters in Bucharest, Romania, on Sunday. Hundreds were injured during Friday's mass demonstration.

Will Yet Another Anti-Corruption Protest Trigger Change in Romania?

Please login to join discussion

Recommended

Mar-A-Lago raid

FBI Raid on Trump’s Home Ignites Political Firestorm

August 9, 2022
Ukraine nuclear plant

Ukraine Calls for De-Militarization of Occupied Nuclear Plant

August 8, 2022
Toru Kubota

Myanmar Junta Charges Japanese Journalist With Encouraging Dissent

August 4, 2022
Nancy Pelosi

Taiwan Defiant as China Readies Military Drills Over Pelosi Visit

August 3, 2022
Protesters stand with placards in front of the statue of India's independence leader Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square, central London, after a demonstration outside the US Embassy

Considering the Patience of Gandhi for These Troubled Times

August 5, 2022
Antonio Guterres

UN Chief Warns Humanity ‘One Miscalculation Away From Nuclear Annihilation’

August 1, 2022

Opinion

Protesters stand with placards in front of the statue of India's independence leader Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square, central London, after a demonstration outside the US Embassy

Considering the Patience of Gandhi for These Troubled Times

August 5, 2022
US President Donald Trump

Owning the Words and the Libs

June 16, 2022
Officers in Uvalde, Texas, stand outside Robb Elementary School near a makeshift memorial for the shooting victims

Child Sacrifice Makes a Comeback

June 3, 2022
A Lebanese election official stands at a polling station

New Group Threatens Lebanese Elections… and Potentially Middle East Peace

May 18, 2022
A man holding a gun

Safely Back in USA, Land of Guns and Burgers

May 2, 2022
China Muslim Uyghurs

Unfair Politicization, Corruption, and the Death of Modern Olympism

April 23, 2022
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post