Ethical Case Study: Google's Stand on Censorship in China

Running head: ETHICS
Ethics
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1ETHICS
Ethical case study
As it is well-known, that China does not allow Google search in their country. Being a
country of a large population, China is a lucrative market for Google due to their large
population. Google believes that knowledge should have a free flow and people should be
allowed to decide what to believe and what not, what to follow and what not. The Chinese
government on the other hand wants to maintain their stand point that internet access should
be censored by the government. Google did not want to compromise with their vision neither
did the Chinese government want to compromise with their supervision.
Why do good?
In the above case, the view of Google is far more ethical. The censorship of
knowledge is considered immoral in many countries including Singapore (Maliks &
Follesdal, 2013). For example, in this case of human rights and its violation by filtering
knowledge Google wanted to do good here by offering free flow of knowledge. They were
not prepared to compromise on ethical and moral ground and also because they believe that it
is intimately related to how people all over the world look at them. Kant’s theory of duty
based morality also sheds light on why Google might be inspired to do good. The first
formulation that every action needs to be universally justified before that is considered moral.
Thus, in case of doing good, individuals might be fueled by the thought that anybody in their
situation would do it. They are also driven by categorical imperative of good will. In many
cases, individuals might be driven by the standards that they have set for themselves. People
assign certain moral or ethical duties to their own self with the belief that these are universal
duties. This thinking might spur them on into doing beneficial acts. Helping the poor and
needy or supporting child education are acts that this moral reasoning is likely to address. In