freedom just around the corner for you
There is an interesting post on Samizdata (a UK blog best described as libertarian or individualist in philosophy) about the complicity of Western companies such as Google in the crimes of totalitarian regimes, and particularly China :
…one of the bees in our bonnet is collaboration of Western corporations with totalitarian and authoritarian regimes anywhere, in any way but especially when it comes to limiting the technology that could help dissidents to communicate among themselves and with the outside world – the first step to any meaningful resistance.
Apparently Skype is even in on the act, helping China to censor conversations between individuals to remove words like “Falungong” and “Dalai Lama.” There are a number of other interesting points made about the relationship between freedom of communication and totalitarianism.
There is already some effort being made by Western governments to prevent this type of behaviour (such as the ‘Global Online Freedom Act 2007′ in the US, a good summary of which is here). Should we be doing more to prevent technology companies, or indeed any companies, from propping up regimes we see as reprehensible? Will the lure of a huge market such as China inevitably mean that Western companies will collaborate with governments that routinely abuse human rights? Is this the ultimate example of market failure?
Freedom just around the corner for you
But with the truth so far off, what good will it do?
it is indeed an example of the corporation being an out of control monster – accountable to no-one…. disgusting. what troubles me more is china’s ongoing resistance to buddhism, it has to be the single most peace loving and respectful religion in the world. i get it, but i dont…. make sense?
“it is indeed an example of the corporation being an out of control monster – accountable to no-one”
No, that is not what it is an example of. The Chinese government, now THAT is an out of control monster accountable to no-one. Skype is quite accountable and you can personally punish them by refusing to do business with them and encouraging others to do likewise. Damage their brand (i.e. do what the article on this very blog is wisely doing to Skype and Google) and make them pay (quite literally) by imposing a negative marketing cost for their direct support for totalitarianism. Even better, when you tell people to not use Skype or Google, point out the other alternatives they can use (who are of course also corporations, just ones who have not taken the Devil’s Shilling). Try doing that to an allegedly ‘accountable’ government by casting your single puny democratic vote and see how far it gets you in the winner takes all world of nation-state politics.
It’s an interesting proposition, and one I’m not sure I entirely agree with, to suggest that in a democratic system one only has a “single puny democratic vote”, but at the same time that corporate conduct may be effectively controlled by “imposing a negative marketing cost” to counterract anti-social behaviour.
The latter half of the proposition is not unsound in principle, but it is rendered largely ineffective by the vast majority of consumers who will not take action in relation to a corporations misdemeanours – long history and common sense suggests that (except in certain unusual cases, such as when Shell wanted to sink that oil platform – incidentally, not necessarily such a terrible thing to do) what consumers will respond to is value, and specifically, the perception that they are or are not receiving it. You or I might agitate against Google and Skype because they help the Chinese government round up thought criminals, but what percentage of people using Google is going to do the same?
And what are we to do when ‘choice’ is strictly limited by the fact that all of the key players in a market have approximately the same record? For instance, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have all done their share of collaborating with evil governments – yet they provide certain services which are not easily found elsewhere.
The parallels to modern Western-liberal democracy are quite marked, actually…