Google.com Not Accessible in China

An article on BBC says that Google.com is blocked in China with only the government censored Chinese interface Google.cn available for more than a 100 million (more than 10 crore) Chinese users that have access to the Internet.

A company with a market capitalization of more than $118bn succumbs to censorship to make a few hundred million dollars more and says it still upholds its 'Do No Evil' policy.

There can't be a grey area in Doing No Evil, either you are ethical in your business practices or you're not. Google should make a few billion less and give free adwords advertising space to Chinese users to compensate them for not making the world's information available at their fingertips.

Google should change its mission from 'To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible' to 'make it universally accessible, albeit selectively to users in China.'

Why only Google and not Yahoo!? That's because Google is a different company, a company that challenges the mindset, that challenges the regular way of doing business, whether it is with 20% time for employees to work on their own projects or going the Dutch auction way on Nasdaq, or rolling out Beta features of applications at a rapid pace, or organizing unique competitions for programmers and other Google users, for their speed, simplicity, and effectiveness.

Whatever I've learnt on the Internet, I've learnt through Google and if Google is God then it shouldn't care about money. It should care about changing the world, making the world a better place to live, and providing the power of knowledge and information to everyone that needs it.

Come on Google, spare a few billion bucks, lose a couple of million today and make a few billion more later on. Show some spine, don't allow censorship. Do business anywhere in the world on your own terms.

That's what separates Google from the others. Make it true across the world. Don't consent to censorship in China.

Had a thought after reading the article and posted it online.

Update: June 10, 2006.
China allows access to Google.com in Beijing and Shanghai.