Business Ethics Essay 2022

Running head: BUSINESS ETHICS
Ethical Dilemma
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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BUSINESS ETHICSIntroduction
This essay presents the ethical dilemma faced by Google while re-launching its search
engine and other services in China by introducing a heavily censored search engine and other
services. The essay will have summary of the article “Why Google's censored search engine for
China is an ethical minefield” by Flick (2018), followed by an analysis of the problem of ethical
dilemma and recommendations to address those issues. Flick (2018) highlighted that Google
decided to re-enter the market of China with highly censored services. Google withdrew from
China eight years back due to the limitations on freedom of speech imposed by the Chinese
government. Even in the recent years, China maintains biggest internet censorship operations in
the world with the logic that the strict firewall is beneficial for promoting social harmony in the
nation with billions of people (Xu, Mao & Halderman, 2011). However, Google named the re-
launch project ‘Dragonfly’ which will introduce heavily censored Google services including
mobile apps, to be run in a partnership with a local Chinese company. The censorship in the
country includes limitations on the freedom of speech and restrictions on the information
regarding the military brutality and Chinese police, information on Dalai Lama, and Tibetan or
Taiwanese independence. However, the question on ethical dilemma emerged regarding the
decision of Google to re-enter the Chinese market, that is, whether the western organizations,
such as, Google are giving up their ethical values for making money in China. The ethical
dilemma also addresses the question that whether it is morally right for organizations like Google
to assist the Chinese government with latest technology, which aims to curtail the rights to
information and freedom of speech of the citizens to oppress them, just to make business. Flick
also reported that Google’s decision will make some employees work on the Project Dragonfly,
whose values are against the code of ethics of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM).

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BUSINESS ETHICSThis would create a problem for those employees of Google. The article also mentions the
impact of this decision by Google and their action is explained in the light of categorical
imperative by Immanuel Kant.
Discussion
Right to information and freedom of speech are two basic aspects under the human rights.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the fundamental rights of freedom of
expression, right to education, and universal access to information, right to participate in the
cultural life and right to privacy form the foundation for promoting values for fundamental
human rights (Freeman, 2017). China is a nation that has strict restrictions on these fundamental
rights of the citizens. Being a communist nation, China has implemented the concept that
individual’s best interests are indistinguishable from that of the society’s and hence, the freedom
of individuals is not compatible with the communist ideologies practiced in China (Wang &
Mark, 2015). This has resulted in the lack of freedom of expression of the people. Due to such
strict limitations and censorship, Google withdrew its services from China in 2010 (Yeo, 2016).
As highlighted by Waddell (2016), Google gave up the access to a huge and enormous market
due to its censorship policies that violated the fundamental human rights. Google found a
cyberattack was conducted by the Chinese government to block personal Gmail accounts of
human rights activists. The internet giant did not face any ethical dilemma in withdrawing their
services from China in support to the human rights. However, in a recent whistleblower by the
company says that Google has plans to enter the Chinese market abiding by the censorship laws
of the nation (Deibert, 2019). This will be a completely opposite action by the company which
had shut down in 2010 due to the same reason, and this is leading to a major ethical dilemma for