Earlier I read this was the first thing Google has done in a long time that wasn’t evil. I strongly disagree. The initial reaction is “we don’t like the Chinese, they’re human rights violators” – Way to go Google. In response to the attacks, Google analyzed the situation. They outed the whole operation and casually mentioned that they saw other unusual behavior associated with human right’s activists. Now they’re trying to back China into a corner to remedy censorship. That seems like a good idea, until you realize:
A corporation just backed a government into a corner to get what it wants.
Can anyone recall that ever happening? Companies lobby, donate money, persuade, but it’s not too often one can risk going to the mat with your economy. Maybe you agree with Google in this special case, but what would you say if they outed NSA missions because of human rights violations at Gitmo (or the more local MD State Police investigating protesters) and threatened to pull its business out of the US economy unless it got what it wanted.
Personally the particular circumstances of this situation do not persuade me to appreciate the move given the nasty implications that such a move might foreshadow.