Google’s history in China
The aim of this essay is to discuss the ethical question raised by the employees of the largest search engine company of the world Google about its projects especially for China. This essay discusses the news named Google Employees Protest Secret Work on Censored Search Engine for China published in the New York Times By Kate Conger and Daisuke Wakabayashi. In this particular article, the issues of unethical working by Google has been questioned through a letter of the employees who have doubted business ethics of Google (Conger and Wakabayashi 2018). According to the letter of the employees to the head of Google, the employees must know what they are doing and for what because they are building sech engine services. The main accusation against Google in the April was that it had been working to build Artificial Intelligence to serve Pentagon. Now the issue is related to the building of special search engine for Chinese market. Through this search engine the people of China will be able to search things except those banned by the government of the country. This is unbearable to the employees as they do not have any idea why they are working secretly on this project or what will be the consequences for this mission.
On the other hand, the company has made this clear that they are not working for Pentagon and doing nothing illegal. However, the news of building a censored search engine to reenter in China has created issues among the employees. This essay will discuss the article in detail and point out key ethical issue raised in the article. After this the essay will analyze whether this initiative taken by Google can be supported or not and finally this issue will be judged in the light of the most appropriate moral philosophy and personal ethical decision-making processes.
In order to detail the arguments in the article, the issue related with the problems regarding Google’s leaving the Chines market eight years back is to be discussed (Conger and Wakabayashi 2018). The company left the largest internet demanding market in China due to the fact that it was not satisfied with the regulations of the government that censor most of the activities of the company. This is the reason why the company protested against the government censorship and hacking and left the country in 2010. Now the main problem detailed in this new article is that, after eight years, Google has changed its code of ethics in operating to enter the Chines market in any way. This issue has dumbfounded the employees completely as the company once protested against the censorship of Chinese government now it is working in support of this censorship. According to the letter of the employees of the company, Google is currently working on a censored search engine that will be working for China. This particular search engine will filter the websites as well as the search terms which are banned by the government of China (Conger and Wakabayashi 2018).
The Dragonfly project
This issue however is not supported by the employees of the company. They are relating this to the company’s interest to garb the largest internet market of the world hence trying to return by any means. The report surfaced that this company is currently working in building the search app which will restrict contents that are banned by the government. The whole process of hiding or restricting information from the citizens of the country was once criticized by Google itself but now it is working on the project Dragonfly to enter the market of China abiding by the censorship of the government (Conger and Wakabayashi 2018).
As mentioned before, the employees are currently not having proper information about the project Dragonfly, hens urging for more transparency in the management and open and clear process so that they do not feel that they are doing something unethical. As the employees of the company gets the chance to speak openly and question the higher authority, they also need to participate in the decision-making process regarding the review process on the products and offerings of the company. The letter from the Google employees also seeks to have some external representatives who will ensure transparency as well as publish ethical assessment for all the controversial projects. The main problem in this aspect is the company is not commenting on this letter. Moreover, it is also declining to comment on the Dragonfly projects or any speculation about its future plans.
In the weekly staff meeting of the company, the questions regarding the ethical actions of the management has been questioned in which the CEO Pichai stated that the issue of launching any search product is not true. From the words of the CEO it has however been cleaned that the company is initiating some actions towards the entering Chinese market. In addition to this, the company had left the market as it found the presence of Chinese hackers attacking the corporate infrastructure of the company and get the access of Gmail accounts. This issue was coupled with the government censorship compelled the company to leave China in 2010. However, the situation has changed, the companies like Google, Facebook and other social media companies are worried with the fact that they are missing serving the entire generation of the largest internet market of the world. In addition to this, they are becoming nonessential among the largest base of internet users.
Key ethical issues raised in the article
To the company, despite the fact that it does not have the scope to serve the internet market through search engines but is in a good connection with the government in different aspects. For example, the company has announced to establish a research center in China that will focus on the artificial intelligence. Google has also introduced file management and translation app for which it has more than 700 Chinese employees. To the company, it is essential to re-enter the market of China as an America technology firm to reduce formation of other homegrown internet behemoths that will give a tough competition to Google.
Key ethical issue raised in the article is purely based on the corporate governance of Google that relates the systems of rule, practices as well as processes through which the company is actually controlled and directed. Corporate governance includes the perfect balance between the interests of the stakeholders of the company such as government, shareholders, financers, management, customers, suppliers, the community and employees. In this article, the authors have pointed out some very important factors that are infringing the ethical operation of the company. This report has two important facets. Firstly, the company has been hiding the information from the employees as they do not have any knowledge about the result of their efforts ether it is legal or illegal and secondly, Google that once protested against the initiative to restrict information from the citizens by the Chinese government, is actually support this censorship to serve its own business profits.
To understand whether most appropriate ethical decisions have been made, the main problem identified in the letter need to be discussed. In the letter of the Google employees, they have asked for clearing out their queries regarding their jobs. This is quite natural for all the business around the world. The employers are responsible to mitigate any doubts among the employees by detailing the aims, objectives and consequences of their actions. They need to have proper understanding of what they are building or heading for. In this context, the employees of Google have identified unethical measures regarding the Dragonfly project as the authorities are building this particular program more secretly and utilizing the workforce to support in the success of this project. The issue gained more importance as the relation of Google with the Chinese government is quite sensitive as the company had left the market with dissatisfaction closing all the way to re-enter this market. Therefore, the company’s decision to reenter the market has become problematic and entangled the employees of the organization also.
Analysis of ethical decisions made
The ethical decision has not been taken as the employees of the organization do not have the opportunity to review the actions of the company on the ethical ground. Despite the fact that the employees get the scope for question the CEO of the company through the internal software system named Dory, they do not get proper answer as the company has kept the whole discussion secret from the media or even to the employees. It is an example of bad governance where the employees are doubting in the reliability and integrity of Google. Therefore, this has resulted in the ill effect of the company’s reputation. As an example of such actions, the illegal activities if Volkswagen AG can be referred. In 2015, the company had rigged the engine emissions tests in Europe and America. According to the report of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that the German automaker Volkswagen Group had violated the Clean Air Act. It has been found that this company had deliberately programmed turbocharged direct injection diesel engines for activating the emissions controls especially during their laboratory emissions testing. This is the reason why Volkswagen recoded stock falling nearly half of its value after the scandal in the markets of these two continents and the global sales reduced by 4.5% (Stanwick and Stanwick 2017).
In the ethical decision-making processes aligning personal opinion or decision by identifying the most relevant of the seven moral philosophies, the virtue ethics will be the most relevant. This moral philosophy takes the morals of the individuals, their characters and enthusiasm into account at the time of rating an unbalanced and unusual actions which is considered to be unethical (Hausman, McPherson and Satz 2016). Virtue ethics as described by Aristotle, as the central this of improving oneself to become a better person. This philosophy aims to discuss that if everyone structures to become a better person, the world will be more productive with having moral environment to live. According to the critics, the virtue ethics is at alteration with the central feature of the modern economic order (Shekshnia, Ledeneva and Denisova-Schmidt 2017). In case of Google, the company knowingly has a bad part and it is hiding information from its employees. This actions of maintaining complete secrecy about the project Dragonfly made the employees feel that they are associated with something wrong and ethical in their business. According to this moral philosophy, other employees of the organization can feel this measure of the company to be ethical and clearing the way to reenter the market of China. To them, this initiative to develop the programs regarding a censored search engine that will be working for Chinese market in accordance to the government regulations of China. Virtue ethics are applied inductively to the problems and draw general conclusion from the specific observation (Teulon 2014). Based on this particular moral philosophy, Google can operate in the global market and get full support from its employees. Virtue ethics therefore mandates that the company will be clear regarding the knowledge sharing process to the employees so that the employees know where they are leading to (Smith 2017). The ensure taken by Google to re-enter the market of China is good and it is very common for the big brands like Google to fail grabbing any chance to enter the largest market of the world but whatever they are doing, the employees must have proper knowledge about it otherwise thus will be considered unethical.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the news article has aptly discussed various facets of the unethical measure taken by Google and effectively captured the concern of the employees in raising voice against this. The main concern of the employees of google is regarding the company’s recent projects which are relating this to the company’s interest to garb the largest Chinese market of the world hence trying to return by any means. The virtue ethics has to be followed in this regard to mitigate such problems in this company.
References and bibliography:
Conger, K. and Wakabayashi, D. 2018. Google Employees Protest Secret Work on Censored Search Engine for China. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/technology/google-employees-protest-search-censored-china.html [Accessed 19 Sep. 2018].
Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Hausman, D., McPherson, M. and Satz, D., 2016. Economic analysis, moral philosophy, and public policy. Cambridge University Press.
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Smith, R.S., 2017. Virtue ethics and moral knowledge: philosophy of language after MacIntyre and Hauerwas. Routledge.
Stanwick, P. and Stanwick, S., 2017. Volkswagen emissions scandal: The perils of installing illegal software. International Review of Management and Business Research, 6(1), p.18.
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