UPDATE: Google restates its corporate hypocrisy…and vows to stand by it!

Last summer, political outrage over its agreement to help the Chinese government spy on Chinese citizens forced Google’s co-founders to fly to Washington, DC to confess their corporate sins and plead for understanding, if not forgiveness. But I was so unmoved by their penitence that I ended my commentary on their confession as follows:

…Despite their very public admission - made appropriately enough in a place where such admissions have real political, but no other, value - I’m not at all confident that Google will do the right thing. Because, in doublespeak that would make even Bill Clinton blush, Brin ended his corporate confession as follows:

'It's perfectly reasonable to do something different, to say, 'Look, we're going to stand by the principle against censorship and we won't actually operate there.' That's an alternate path….It's not where we chose to go right now, but I can sort of see how people came to different conclusions about doing the right thing.'

Spoken like a true smarmy geek, don’t you think....

Therefore, I was not at all surprised when The Guardian of London reported on Saturday that, notwithstanding its confession, not only has Google done nothing to redeem its corporate motto “Don’t be evil,” but has in fact replaced contrition about its corporate hypocrisy with unbridled arrogance.

And, here’s how that paper reported Google’s rationalization of its conversion from a company that preaches democratic values to one that suppresses them:

From what was said yesterday a policy change seemed unlikely in the near future. Co-founder Larry Page said: "We always consider what to do. But I don't think we as a company should be making decisions based on too much perception."

Alas, even for, Google business is business, and its corporate hippocratic oath be damned!


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