Co-founders of Google Inc. Larry Page and Sergey Brin made a promise in the early days of their now global empire to not “be evil.” They pledged early on to always put their morals before profit and until now, they appeared to have no challenge upholding it. Their most recent decision to perhaps leave China rather than continue to accommodate their censorship that violates the accepted Western vision of civil rights puts them face to face with their vow. If they two decide to leave, they’ll abandon the largest market in the world, which could weigh on their growth and stock. If they don’t, Google will be endorsing, via inaction the unfair practices that have been in place for hundreds of years.
The support of Page and Brin is required in the decision, as the two have 58 percent of the voting power. Google stock is broken apart into two categories, providing the two founders with the majority of the voting power.
Thus far, the internal debate has been extrapolated upon very minimally. Earlier in the week, Google China encountered an attack on the g-mail accounts of Chinese civil rights activists. Though the company never made an announcement as to who was responsible, it’s become clear that the suspicion lies on the Chinese government. Google representatives have described the decision as “incredibly hard” but as of yet have released little information how they came to it.
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