Google Is Handing the Future of the Internet to China

[StreakyCobra]

«In May, Google quietly removed “Don’t be evil” from the text of its corporate code of conduct, deleting a catchphrase that had been associated with the company since 2000.»

So it is now official, Google can not longer be considered as "not Evil". And we know this thanks to this sentence that has finally served as a warrant canary.

[j88439h84]

"And remember… don’t be evil, and if you see something that you think isn’t right – speak up!

Last updated July 31, 2018"

https://abc.xyz/investor/other/google-code-of-conduct.html

[jasonvorhe]

Don't people ever grow tired of this nonsense?

If no one got nothing of value to add, there's always some reference to "evil" and suddenly everyone has an opinion on a Google related topic.

[O1111OOO]

Once a company becomes comfortable with censorship, search manipulation in the name of their own politically motivated agenda... censorship and search manipulation can be repackaged if the price is right.

There are many here (as well as those 1,400 Googlers who signed the letter) who turned a blind-eye toward censorship and public manipulation when they agreed with the politics. This is the end result. Sadly... it's just the tip of the iceberg as the future looks much more bleak.

[zapita]

What are you referring to? Your reference to politics seem to come out of nowhere, is there context for it that we’re missing?

[tanilama]

Interesting title. What future would Google have, regarding China, if it doesn't even exist in that country?

By exiting China, except pleasing the those moral puritans, I fail to see what exactly Google achieves. China now has a self-contained internet ecosystem, which is moderated and censored by the party's will, yet vibrant and providing countless business potential and shaping the society at breakneck speed. The only one holds China's internet's future is apparently, China.

[394549]

> By exiting China, except pleasing the those moral puritans, I fail to see what exactly Google achieves.

You don't even have to have much imagination to realize that by exiting China, Google removed the leverage the Chinese government had over it. If Google has operations in China that it values, the Communist Party can use those operations as a hostage to manipulate Google, just like it did with the airlines.

Do you want an authoritarian government to have leverage over the service that you use to search for the answers to your questions? It's not inconceivable that that the CCP might use that leverage to get Google to change the rankings of its search results to be more to its liking.

[kenhwang]

Google's sure looking more and more like the Oracle of this generation.

[KennyCason]

I wonder if Google having a stronger presence and relationships in China, even if censored, would in fact be a better alternative than not having a presence in China. Another way the west can influence China and its direction is from the inside. It seems pretty clear that just avoiding the market due to morality isn’t really achieving anything. It just leaves a bigger void for local Chinese companies to fill. I’m in China now and I can tell you most people don’t really know or care about Google. Also, for the most part, your average person doesn’t even perceive the fact that their internet is restricted, and those that do, use VPNs anyways and have probably traveled abroad at some point. I’m beginning to think we should be injecting as much influence INTO China as possible if we want to have any ground later.

[f055]

We've seen this before. AOL was a monster on a ledge, and it fell. Google is a monster on a ledge, and it will fall. Funny enough, it's the ledge(r) that will bury it. All hail Internet 3.0 :P

[apatters]

I tend to feel the same way (in principle though not convinced it will be because of "Dweb" tech). I've been using searx.me for a year or so. This is a metasearch engine based on open source software, anyone can run an instance of it. I get a mix of results from Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo. It tells me which results come from which engine and I don't think it would be a big deal if Google started censoring stuff, or if it was removed altogether.

If Google starts censoring results in the US or EU with clear political motives, a Searx instance will be clearly superior (probably Bing and DDG standalone will be too). Many people will switch and search will become a more competitive market all of a sudden.

I'm not pro-censorship and I think Google censoring results for China would be disgusting. But if they migrate the practice to Western democracies I think they'll basically commit suicide. (Therefore they probably won't do it.)

[Paraesthetic]

Excellent, an Internet that is heavily censored by Google. I guess thats the ultimate agenda of most governments, which means its the end goal of Google's greed.

[peterlk]

To be honest, I don't see this censorship as such a big deal, it's an annoying speed bump, but not much more. Media has censored things forever, and as long as the internet remains open, it's not like censoring search results will prevent information from existing on the internet. It just means that we might need to build some new channels to share it. To me, the scary thing is the centralization of power with respect to networking (DNS/BGP/switching/etc. - see net neutrality). If internet infrastructure remains open, we'll continue to have the opportunity to build mastodon, duckduckgo, OSM, etc. And eventually those things will overtake the walled gardens that "Megacorp"s are cornering themselves into. Linux is the shining example of this.

[methou]

And there's no way to stop it, yet there's no escape for it.

If Google is going to be more cooperative, there are more than just censorship that Google and Alphabet can provide.

Personally I would flee China but the relocation would require a higher-than-medium paying job which is difficult to get as a foreigner in most of the Countries, and I believe the status also applies many others.

[394549]

It feels like this story was suppressed from HN. Here's a story that's older but has a similar number of points that's still on the front page (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17964942; 64 pts, 13 hours ago), while this story is on page 4 (63 pts, 8 hours ago). Seems to be happening a lot for stories on topics like this.

[Techpanda74]

Money bypass morals I guess.

[amaccuish]

> decisions over what content to algorithmically uplift or suppress can involve agonizing questions of interpretation, intent, and cultural context.

Or you know, why not bring back chronological feeds... I'm convinced part of the polarisation in previous years can be put down to "algorithms" boosting particular posts.

[yAnonymous]

The censor ship has long sailed and its first passengers were American copyright shills, followed by European criminals who wanted their crimes to be removed from Google.

[faag39]

Since this censored version of the search engine will only work in China, I don't see how they are "handing the future of the Internet" to them.

[07d046]

It's arguing that China could leverage Google's Chinese market access to influence how Google behaves around the world, sort of like how almost all airlines around the world now say Taiwan is part of China:

> Once Google’s new Chinese business is up and running, there will be nothing to stop Beijing from seeking to dictate how references to Taiwan are addressed not just in China but throughout the site globally. China may also demand to shape how protests in Taiwan, Hong Kong, or the mainland are addressed or what happens when people search for dissidents such as Liu Xiaobo or topics such as human rights. While Google executives may believe that their company would never accede to such requests outside of China’s borders, there are no guarantees. If China gains the leverage to shape how Google presents what Beijing considers to be sensitive topics throughout the rest of the world, it will deal a mortal blow to international principles of freedom of expression and thought.

[YouKnowBetter]

I presume that is on the premissis that every other state / regime will be able to leverage that deal between Google & China to black out whatever they think is not PC in their country.

[avaika]

Cause other countries might say "Ha, we also want this cool censored version. Please remove all negative information about our government and whatever we don't like. Here's your money (optionally). Otherwise we will find a nice reason to ban you in our country". Especially those with authoritative regime.

[ctack]

Beijing currently influences it's weaker trading partners(which is most of the developing world) on various political points. For example - Taiwan policy or Dalai Lama visits.

It's not hard to imagine China then asking them to use their "new and improved" version of Google too.

[muraiki]

Downvoted because the entire article is about explaining this.

[iamgopal]

All this blaming Google for being evil, when they suffer due to political implications, why we just watch and do nothing about it ? Because it's private company ? So why now ? It's still private company.