Google co-founder Sergey Brin has called on Washington
to take a stand against China's censorship of the internet, urging the
US to make the issue a "high priority".
Brin, talking to the
Guardian about Google's decision yesterday to lift censorship from its
Chinese internet search engine, called on government and businesses to
act in order to put pressure on Beijing. "I certainly hope they make it a
high priority," he said. "Human rights issues deserve equal time to the
trade issues that are high priority now … I hope this gets taken
seriously."
The Obama administration has been playing down the
growing conflict between one of America's most successful companies and
the Chinese authorities, suggesting that the relationship between the
two countries is "mature enough to sustain differences".
But Brin
said it was vital that Obama tackled the issue – not least because the
importance of the internet means that trade and censorship are
inextricably linked. "Since services and information are our most
successful exports, if regulations in China effectively prevent us from
being competitive, then they are a trade barrier," he said.
'This is about Google defending the internet': Jeff Jarvis on Google
moving its server for China to Hong Kong to evade censorship Link
to this audio
Brin, 36, who started Google with fellow Stanford graduate
Larry Page in 1998, also criticised companies that co-operate with
Beijing – singling out the actions of Microsoft, which has criticised
Google's approach in China.
He said that companies should think
carefully about whether they are providing an ethical service to Chinese
citizens and took aim at critics of Google's U-turn. Brin has admitted
in the past that launching the censored service in 2006 was a mistake.
"We have always opposed [censorship] but obviously we have now taken a
stronger point of view," he said. "I was surprised immediately after our
January announcement how much resentment there appeared to be among
free marketeers.
"The notion that any company should make any sort
of decision other than to maximise profit? I would hope that larger
companies would not put profit ahead of all else. Generally, companies
should pay attention to how and where their products are used."
A
number of technology companies have been criticised over the years for
their roles in helping the Chinese government censor the internet,
including most notoriously Cisco – which provides some of the systems
used to run the so-called Great Firewall.
Brin saved his strongest
criticisms for Microsoft, which he said had capitulated to the Chinese
government and trampled over human rights merely in an attempt to score
points over Google.
"I'm very disappointed for them in
particular," he said. "As I understand, they have effectively no market
share – so they essentially spoke against freedom of speech and human
rights simply in order to contradict Google."
He was referring to
comments by Microsoft chairman and co-founder Bill Gates, who told
American TV – shortly after the revelations that Google had been
attacked by hackers based in China – that Beijing's censorship was "very
limited".
"You've got to decide: do you want to obey the laws of
the countries you're in or not?" Gates told ABC's Good Morning America
in January. "If not, you may not end up doing business there."
Brin
has long advocated lifting censorship from Google in China. He has said
that his strong feelings stemmed from the fact that he was born in the
Soviet Union in the 1970s and that his parents, Jewish scientists, left
Moscow in 1979 after encountering widespread antisemitism. "It touches
me more than other people having been born in a country that was
totalitarian and having seen that for the first few years of my life,"
he said.
But after four years of self-censoring, Google's
about-face now means that it essentially offers the same filtered
service to Chinese users that it did in 2006, before it opted to comply
with Beijing's wishes.
Asked whether he felt that Google had been
wrong to go into China in the first place, he said: "I think it's really
hard to say. I do think we helped some. "Obviously it's impossible to
replace history, and we made a pretty reasonable set of decisions at the
time."
He added: "I hope the political system in China evolves so
that we can have more direct involvement again … I hope this leads to a
path where the doors start to open more."
Indeed, Brin suggested
that the more companies like Google were only accessible outside the
firewall, the more pressure would grow on China.
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Google 的联合创始人谢尔盖·布林呼吁华盛顿对中国的互联网审查制度采取行动，敦促奥巴马政府能够将这一问题放在高优
先级上。
布林昨天在接受《卫报》关于Google停止对谷歌中国搜索引擎实施审查决定的采访中说，他呼吁政府和企业采取行动，向北
京施压。“我非常希望他们能把这一问题放在高优先级上”，他说，“人权问题应该与目前处于高优先级的贸易问题得到同
等的及时处理……我希望这个建议能被重视。”
奥巴马政府一直在淡化Google，这个美国最成功的公司中的一员，与中国当权者之间愈演愈烈的冲突，并且指出（美中）两
国之间的关系已经“成熟到可以维持差异”。
但布林说对奥巴马来说，处理这件事至关重要 — 这并非无足轻重，因为互联网的重要性意味着贸易和审查有着密不可分的
联系。他说：“因为服务和信息是我们最重要的出口品，如果中国的审查有效地削弱了我们在中国的竞争力，那么这些规则
就是实际上的贸易壁垒。”
杰夫·贾维斯（Jeff Jarvis）对Google把它的服务器从中国（大陆）转移到香港以避免审查的行动发表评论说：“这是
Google在保卫互联网”。点击这里收听原音音频
现年36岁的布林在1998年与同届斯坦福研究生拉里·佩奇共同创建了 Google，他同时也批评那些已经（在审查问题上）与北
京建立合作关系的公司，并特别指责了当时对Google（退出）中国政策持批评态度的微软公司的行为。
他说公司们应该仔细反省自己是否正在向中国网民提供合乎道德的服务，还把矛头对准针对Google的转向的批评言论。布林
已经承认过去在2006年启动审查服务是一个错误。“我们一直反对[审查]但是很明显我们没有坚持更为坚定的立场，”他说
，“1月份的声明立即在自由市场的支持者们中引起了如此大的不满让我非常惊讶。”
“至于（你说到）任何公司应把利润最大化作为做任何决策的唯一出发点的观点，我倒希望大公司不应把利润排在第一位。
总体来说，公司们应该关注他们的产品是如何和在何处被使用。”，
近年来一大批科技公司已经因为他们在帮助中国政府审查互联网中扮演的角色而饱受批评，包括最为人熟知的思科公司，它
提供了一些被用来运行被称为是GFW（防火长城）的系统。
布林把最强烈的批评指向了微软，他批评微软已经向中国政府投降并且践踏人权只是为了试图打败Google。
“我尤其对他们非常失望”，他说，“我明白他们基本上没有市场份额，所以他们之所以发表反对言论自由和人权的言辞，
仅仅是为了对抗Google。”
他引用了微软董事会主席兼联合创始人比尔·盖茨的评论，比尔·盖茨曾在谷歌揭发受到来自中国的攻击后不久接受美国电
视台说北京的审查“非常有限”[相关阅读：环 球时报英文版：比尔盖茨为中国辩护]。
“你必须决定：你要不要遵守所在国家的法律？”，比尔·盖茨在ABC一月份的《早安美国》节目中说。“如果不遵守，你可
能最终就不能在那里做生意。”
长久以来布林一直倡导停止对谷歌中国的审查。他曾说过他的强烈情感来源于他生于20世纪70年代的苏联以及他的犹太科学
家父母在1979年因为遭遇普遍的反犹太主义而离开苏联的事实。“我比诞生在这个国家的其他人更能明显的感受到那是极权
主义，并且在我人生的前几年里一直在亲眼目睹这些。”，他说。
但是经过了4年的自我审查以后，Google的本地服务现在提供给中国网民的是与2006年选择遵从北京意愿之前相同的被过滤内
容。当被问到他是否觉得Google在进入中国的第一步就已经错了时，他说：“我觉得这真的很难说。我的确希望我们能帮助
一些人，很明显历史不能重演，我们当时做了一系列非常合理的决定。”
他接着说：“我希望中国的政治系统能够有所改变，以使我们能做出更多的直接投资……我希望这能通向一条更加开放的道
路。”
事实上，布林暗示的是有越多像Google一样只能在墙外访问的公司，中国面临的压力就会越大。
