Unethical Issues in Google

The aim of this essay is to discuss the ethical question raised by the employees of the largest search engine company of the world Google about its projects especially for China. This essay discusses the news named Google Employees Protest Secret Work on Censored Search Engine for China published in the New York Times By Kate Conger and Daisuke Wakabayashi.

Running head: UNETHICAL ISSUES IN GOOGLE
UNETHICAL ISSUES IN GOOGLE
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1UNETHICAL ISSUES IN GOOGLE
The aim of this essay is to discuss the ethical question raised by the employees of the
largest search engine company of the world Google about its projects especially for China. This
essay discusses the news named Google Employees Protest Secret Work on Censored Search
Engine for China published in the New York Times By Kate Conger and Daisuke Wakabayashi.
In this particular article, the issues of unethical working by Google has been questioned through
a letter of the employees who have doubted business ethics of Google (Conger and Wakabayashi
2018). According to the letter of the employees to the head of Google, the employees must know
what they are doing and for what because they are building sech engine services. The main
accusation against Google in the April was that it had been working to build Artificial
Intelligence to serve Pentagon. Now the issue is related to the building of special search engine
for Chinese market. Through this search engine the people of China will be able to search things
except those banned by the government of the country. This is unbearable to the employees as
they do not have any idea why they are working secretly on this project or what will be the
consequences for this mission.
On the other hand, the company has made this clear that they are not working for
Pentagon and doing nothing illegal. However, the news of building a censored search engine to
reenter in China has created issues among the employees. This essay will discuss the article in
detail and point out key ethical issue raised in the article. After this the essay will analyze
whether this initiative taken by Google can be supported or not and finally this issue will be
judged in the light of the most appropriate moral philosophy and personal ethical decision-
making processes.
In order to detail the arguments in the article, the issue related with the problems
regarding Google’s leaving the Chines market eight years back is to be discussed (Conger and

2UNETHICAL ISSUES IN GOOGLE
Wakabayashi 2018). The company left the largest internet demanding market in China due to the
fact that it was not satisfied with the regulations of the government that censor most of the
activities of the company. This is the reason why the company protested against the government
censorship and hacking and left the country in 2010. Now the main problem detailed in this new
article is that, after eight years, Google has changed its code of ethics in operating to enter the
Chines market in any way. This issue has dumbfounded the employees completely as the
company once protested against the censorship of Chinese government now it is working in
support of this censorship. According to the letter of the employees of the company, Google is
currently working on a censored search engine that will be working for China. This particular
search engine will filter the websites as well as the search terms which are banned by the
government of China (Conger and Wakabayashi 2018).
This issue however is not supported by the employees of the company. They are relating
this to the company’s interest to garb the largest internet market of the world hence trying to
return by any means. The report surfaced that this company is currently working in building the
search app which will restrict contents that are banned by the government. The whole process of
hiding or restricting information from the citizens of the country was once criticized by Google
itself but now it is working on the project Dragonfly to enter the market of China abiding by the
censorship of the government (Conger and Wakabayashi 2018).
As mentioned before, the employees are currently not having proper information about
the project Dragonfly, hens urging for more transparency in the management and open and clear
process so that they do not feel that they are doing something unethical. As the employees of the
company gets the chance to speak openly and question the higher authority, they also need to
participate in the decision-making process regarding the review process on the products and

3UNETHICAL ISSUES IN GOOGLE
offerings of the company. The letter from the Google employees also seeks to have some
external representatives who will ensure transparency as well as publish ethical assessment for
all the controversial projects. The main problem in this aspect is the company is not commenting
on this letter. Moreover, it is also declining to comment on the Dragonfly projects or any
speculation about its future plans.
In the weekly staff meeting of the company, the questions regarding the ethical actions of
the management has been questioned in which the CEO Pichai stated that the issue of launching
any search product is not true. From the words of the CEO it has however been cleaned that the
company is initiating some actions towards the entering Chinese market. In addition to this, the
company had left the market as it found the presence of Chinese hackers attacking the corporate
infrastructure of the company and get the access of Gmail accounts. This issue was coupled with
the government censorship compelled the company to leave China in 2010. However, the
situation has changed, the companies like Google, Facebook and other social media companies
are worried with the fact that they are missing serving the entire generation of the largest internet
market of the world. In addition to this, they are becoming nonessential among the largest base
of internet users.
To the company, despite the fact that it does not have the scope to serve the internet
market through search engines but is in a good connection with the government in different
aspects. For example, the company has announced to establish a research center in China that
will focus on the artificial intelligence. Google has also introduced file management and
translation app for which it has more than 700 Chinese employees. To the company, it is
essential to re-enter the market of China as an America technology firm to reduce formation of
other homegrown internet behemoths that will give a tough competition to Google.

4UNETHICAL ISSUES IN GOOGLE
Key ethical issue raised in the article is purely based on the corporate governance of
Google that relates the systems of rule, practices as well as processes through which the
company is actually controlled and directed. Corporate governance includes the perfect balance
between the interests of the stakeholders of the company such as government, shareholders,
financers, management, customers, suppliers, the community and employees. In this article, the
authors have pointed out some very important factors that are infringing the ethical operation of
the company. This report has two important facets. Firstly, the company has been hiding the
information from the employees as they do not have any knowledge about the result of their
efforts ether it is legal or illegal and secondly, Google that once protested against the initiative to
restrict information from the citizens by the Chinese government, is actually support this
censorship to serve its own business profits.
To understand whether most appropriate ethical decisions have been made, the main
problem identified in the letter need to be discussed. In the letter of the Google employees, they
have asked for clearing out their queries regarding their jobs. This is quite natural for all the
business around the world. The employers are responsible to mitigate any doubts among the
employees by detailing the aims, objectives and consequences of their actions. They need to have
proper understanding of what they are building or heading for. In this context, the employees of
Google have identified unethical measures regarding the Dragonfly project as the authorities are
building this particular program more secretly and utilizing the workforce to support in the
success of this project. The issue gained more importance as the relation of Google with the
Chinese government is quite sensitive as the company had left the market with dissatisfaction
closing all the way to re-enter this market. Therefore, the company’s decision to reenter the
market has become problematic and entangled the employees of the organization also.

5UNETHICAL ISSUES IN GOOGLE
The ethical decision has not been taken as the employees of the organization do not have
the opportunity to review the actions of the company on the ethical ground. Despite the fact that
the employees get the scope for question the CEO of the company through the internal software
system named Dory, they do not get proper answer as the company has kept the whole
discussion secret from the media or even to the employees. It is an example of bad governance
where the employees are doubting in the reliability and integrity of Google. Therefore, this has
resulted in the ill effect of the company’s reputation. As an example of such actions, the illegal
activities if Volkswagen AG can be referred. In 2015, the company had rigged the engine
emissions tests in Europe and America. According to the report of the United States
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that the German automaker Volkswagen Group had
violated the Clean Air Act. It has been found that this company had deliberately programmed
turbocharged direct injection diesel engines for activating the emissions controls especially
during their laboratory emissions testing. This is the reason why Volkswagen recoded stock
falling nearly half of its value after the scandal in the markets of these two continents and the
global sales reduced by 4.5% (Stanwick and Stanwick 2017).
In the ethical decision-making processes aligning personal opinion or decision by
identifying the most relevant of the seven moral philosophies, the virtue ethics will be the
most relevant. This moral philosophy takes the morals of the individuals, their characters and
enthusiasm into account at the time of rating an unbalanced and unusual actions which is
considered to be unethical (Hausman, McPherson and Satz 2016). Virtue ethics as described by
Aristotle, as the central this of improving oneself to become a better person. This philosophy
aims to discuss that if everyone structures to become a better person, the world will be more
productive with having moral environment to live. According to the critics, the virtue ethics is at

6UNETHICAL ISSUES IN GOOGLE
alteration with the central feature of the modern economic order (Shekshnia, Ledeneva and
Denisova-Schmidt 2017). In case of Google, the company knowingly has a bad part and it is
hiding information from its employees. This actions of maintaining complete secrecy about the
project Dragonfly made the employees feel that they are associated with something wrong and
ethical in their business. According to this moral philosophy, other employees of the
organization can feel this measure of the company to be ethical and clearing the way to reenter
the market of China. To them, this initiative to develop the programs regarding a censored search
engine that will be working for Chinese market in accordance to the government regulations of
China. Virtue ethics are applied inductively to the problems and draw general conclusion from
the specific observation (Teulon 2014). Based on this particular moral philosophy, Google can
operate in the global market and get full support from its employees. Virtue ethics therefore
mandates that the company will be clear regarding the knowledge sharing process to the
employees so that the employees know where they are leading to (Smith 2017). The ensure taken
by Google to re-enter the market of China is good and it is very common for the big brands like
Google to fail grabbing any chance to enter the largest market of the world but whatever they are
doing, the employees must have proper knowledge about it otherwise thus will be considered
unethical.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the news article has aptly discussed various facets of
the unethical measure taken by Google and effectively captured the concern of the employees in
raising voice against this. The main concern of the employees of google is regarding the
company’s recent projects which are relating this to the company’s interest to garb the largest
Chinese market of the world hence trying to return by any means. The virtue ethics has to be
followed in this regard to mitigate such problems in this company.

7UNETHICAL ISSUES IN GOOGLE

8UNETHICAL ISSUES IN GOOGLE
References and bibliography:
Conger, K. and Wakabayashi, D. 2018. Google Employees Protest Secret Work on Censored
Search Engine for China. [online] Nytimes.com. Available at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/technology/google-employees-protest-search-censored-
china.html [Accessed 19 Sep. 2018].
Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and
sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Hausman, D., McPherson, M. and Satz, D., 2016. Economic analysis, moral philosophy, and
public policy. Cambridge University Press.
Meyers, D.T., 2014. Subjection and subjectivity: Psychoanalytic feminism and moral philosophy.
Routledge.
Pearson, R., 2017. Business ethics as communication ethics: Public relations practice and the
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Schmidt, J., 2016. Melancholy and the care of the soul: Religion, moral philosophy and madness
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Shekshnia, S., Ledeneva, A. and Denisova-Schmidt, E., 2017. Managing Business Corruption:
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European Review, 95(1), pp.151-174.
Smith, R.S., 2017. Virtue ethics and moral knowledge: philosophy of language after MacIntyre
and Hauerwas. Routledge.

9UNETHICAL ISSUES IN GOOGLE
Stanwick, P. and Stanwick, S., 2017. Volkswagen emissions scandal: The perils of installing
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