Google, Microsoft Say No To Congress On China
Three out of the four companies invited to tomorrow’s congressional briefing on American companies enforcing Chinese censorship have flat out refused to attend. Google, Microsoft and Cisco have said they willnot be coming to the briefing, designed to spotlight the collusion between American companies and the Chinese government. Yahoo has not yet said wether it will attend.
While attendance at Wednesday’s briefing was not mandatory, companies could be compelled with subpoenas to attend a Feb. 15 hearing on the issue, said Rep. Chris Smith, Republican chairman of the House International Relations subcommittee on global human rights.
In an interview, Smith criticized U.S. Internet companies, saying they were helping China arrest and torture activists and screen information from its citizens.
“This is not benign or neutral,” the lawmaker said of companies acceding to China’s demands. “They have an obligation not to be promoting dictatorship.”
Sometimes we forget that even though this is the cost of doing business in China, these actions are contradictory to the Constitution of the United States of America and the ideals of democracy. Expect some impassioned speeches on the 15th.
UPDATE: Google has a post on their blog explaining why they aren’t coming, by way of reprinting their letter to Congress. First two paragraphs, as addressed by Google’s Andrew McLaughlin:
On behalf of Google, I would like to thank the Members of the Human Rights Caucus for inviting Google to participate in today’s Member Briefing on Human Rights and the Internet in China.
Though previously scheduled commitments prevent me from appearing in person today, I reiterate Google’s offer to participate in a Member Briefing on another date, to brief Members individually, and to continue briefing staff on our activities in China.
I love that Google is doing this. Unless expressly forbidden by law, I think every company should post publicly their communiques with the government, remain transparent about this stuff, so we don’t find out about Justice Department requests for search history half a year later.
Still, don’t tell Congress you have other commitments. We all know you aren’t coming because you want to save the fight for the subpeona’d hearing.
The one question that always fascinates me - what if China had lots of oil and had helped the US in military actions against other countries in the past.
Would the censorship question come up this quickly, this big and this prominently? The answer, which saddens me deeply, is no.
The Chinese government is by no means unique in that they restrict the type of materials available on the internet. There are many other countries that do precisely the same.
The problem is that China represents a major market and no company can seriously afford to miss out on opportunities there. Thus companies like Google unfortunately have to comply with local laws to do business there. Whether that law is right or wrong, shall be out of the question.
The one assumption we shall not forget - they are doing business abroad. It doesn’t matter what the US constitution and US laws say, Google has to operate under the laws of the country in which they’d like to do business.
Here a fun example for you to contemplate. Consider a Dutch Coffeeshop owner was to start selling their very not-coffee like products via the internet to the US, the US customs clamping down on this illegal trade and the Dutch parliament would start hearings about it. The US governemtn would rightly says: who gives a shit, this is our country, our laws - it doesn’t matter what the dutch think.
Now think of the Chinese - they have laws too, we might not like them, but here they are. They decided to enforce these laws and thus made Googles operation there not viable. Google decides to start a local page, which complied with local laws, to give their customers a competitive product to use and to make a buck or two.
I know this is difficult, but if you have a problem with this, kindly take your computer and throw it out of the window. I am sure there are parts manufactured in China in there and you wouldn’t possibly want to do business with a company that does business with a Chinese company, which in the end subjects to Chinese laws. Go ahead, open the window and don’t forget to throw everything else out - made in china…
Comment by Mr. C | February 1, 2006
Google has posted their official response, their reasoning for doing what they did, and proposed next steps to reach a resolution.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/human-rights-caucus-briefing.html
Comment by Niraj | February 1, 2006
[…] UPDATE: Google actually issued the statement because they were unable to attend the conference on such short notice. Microsoft and Cisco also have declined this meeting, but they may all be present at a later meeting on February 15th. Good summary at InsideGoogle, and more on tech.meme. […]
Pingback by alwaysBETA » Google Censorship, Part 2 | February 1, 2006
google is very clever, in 2005, it made big money in chinese market.
Comment by Wood Flooring | March 16, 2006
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