Google vs. China’s “Great Firewall”: Ethical implications for free speech and sovereignty q Sung Wook Kim a , Aziz Douai b, * a School of Communication and Media, Seoul Women’s University, 621 Hwarang-ro, Nowon-gu, Seoul 139-774, Korea b Faculty of Social Science and Humanities, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, 55 Bond Street East, Oshawa, ONL1G 0A5, Canada article info Article history: Received 6 July 2011 Received in revised form 7 January 2012 Accepted 1 February 2012 Keywords: Freedom of speech Censorship Sovereignty Google China Great Fire Wall abstract Prior to its 2010 decision to leave China, Google has been blamed for helping the Chinese government to filter the Internet since it launched “Google.cn” in 2006. The primary goal of this paper is to investigate whether Google’s launching of “Google.cn” that censors material deemed objectionable to the Chinese government is ethical or not. Apparently, it seems that Google should be blamed for helping Chinese officials to filter the Internet and to abridge freedom of speech. Unlike its outward aspects, however, Google’s case is not simple. This article presents evidence and arguments that suggest it is difficult to assert that Google is an unethical firm to abridge freedom of speech in China. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction China’s modernization and global economic muscle have come at the expense of free speech and other political freedoms. Human Rights organizations and advocates have described the anachronistic discrepancy between economic wealth and the freedom deficit in powerful terms such as the famous “The Great Firewall of China.” The Chinese speech censorship and policing of the Internet have become fixtures in global human rights campaigns and other debates about the role of technologies in social change. As a global technology powerhouse, Google’s tussle with the Chinese regime, its relocation of its search engines to Hong Kong in 2010 to avoid censorship, has been cele- brated as standing up for free speech. In a context where the revolutionary role of social media in the so-called “Arab Democracy Spring” has been amply vaunted, it behooves scholars to re-examine Google’s role in China, specifically its decision to launch its Chinese search engine, Google.cn in 2006. The local Google site, “Google.cn (Google- China),” has been a controversial issue because it exposed corporations’ willingness to censor materials deemed objectionable to the Chinese government for the sake of profit. Many people and organizations including ‘Reporters Without Borders’ criticized Google, arguing the company was taking an immoral position that could not be justified. However, Andrew McLaughlin, senior policy counsel for Google, argued that people getting limited access to content is better than getting no access [9]. The primary goal of this paper is to investigate the ethical nature and implications Google’s launching of “Google.cn” that censors material that offends Chinese government. Apparently, it seems that Google should be blamed for helping Chinese officials to filter the Internet and to abridge freedom of speech. Google defends itself, however, by arguing that it has to remove some content from the search results available on Google.cn in response to local law, regulation and policy. In addition, it explains q This work was supported by a research grant from Seoul Women’s University (2011). * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ1 905 721 8668 x 3790; fax: þ1 905 721 3372. E-mail addresses: aziz.douai@uoit.ca, azizdouai@gmail.com (A. Douai). Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect Technology in Society journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/techsoc 0160-791X/$ – see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.techsoc.2012.02.002 Technology in Society xxx (2012) 1–8 Please cite this article in press as: Kim SW, Douai A, Google vs. China’s “Great Firewall”: Ethical implications for free speech and sovereignty, Technology in Society (2012), doi:10.1016/j.techsoc.2012.02.002