Don't Be Evil (but censorship is ok)

“Google Inc. is committed to doing business in China despite criticism the company has faced for abiding by Chinese government censorship restrictions, co-founder Sergey Brin said this week. … Brin told a small group of invited journalists: ‘I think it’s perfectly reasonable to do something different. Say, OK, let’s stand by the principle against censorship and we won’t actually operate there.’ But he then added: ‘That’s an alternative path. It’s not the one we’ve chosen to take right now.’ … At a regular news briefing in Beijing on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said the Chinese government viewed Google’s involvement in the country positively.”

— Reuters

So it is perfectly reasonable for a company whose sole mission is to bring the world’s information to your fingertips and was founded with the motto “Don’t Be Evil” to work with oppressive governments to censor such words as:

• democracy
• human rights
• tiananmen
• bird flu
• dissidents
• water pollution
• tank man
• freedom
• protests

The above list was obtained from: http://blog.outer-court.com/archive/2006-06-08-n72.html. I don’t know how Google can be so blind, but hey at least the stock is doing well.