Google's Dragonfly Project: A Business Ethics and CSR Analysis

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of Google's controversial 'Dragonfly' project, a censored search engine designed for the Chinese market. The essay begins by summarizing the news article that brought the project to light, highlighting the concerns raised by Google employees regarding the ethical implications of assisting the Chinese government in suppressing freedom of speech. It discusses the key ethical issues, including the violation of principles of technological development and lack of transparency. The essay then assesses whether the ethical decisions made by Google were appropriate, drawing on ethical frameworks and moral philosophies. The analysis aligns the ethical dilemmas with seven moral philosophies, including teleological theory, ethical egoism, utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics, and the theory of justice. The essay concludes by reiterating the key arguments and ethical considerations related to Google's actions, emphasizing the importance of business ethics and social responsibility in the global context.

Running head: Comparative Business Ethics and Social Responsibility
Comparative Business Ethics and Social Responsibility
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

2
Introduction
Ethics play a crucial role in the business world since it impacts on the reputation of any
business. Business ethics is not only limited to ethical behavior and attributes of the employees,
rather it means beyond of that. Ethics in business refer to practicing ethics in entire business
process. Thus the whole essay shedding light on the importance of business ethics analyses a
news article which documented an issue regarding business ethics. In the whole course of the
discussion, the essay begins by summarizing the key arguments made in the article with giving
an overview on the background. The discussion further elaborates on the main ethical issue
focused in the article. The article will be discussed based on the key arguments as to whether an
appropriate ethical decision has been made or not. The analytical part further relates the seven
moral philosophies while aligning with the ethical discussion regarding the chosen article. The
essay concludes by giving a sum up of the whole essay.
Discussion
Outlining and summarizing the arguments made in the article
The article named “Google staff protest against plan for censored Chinese search engine"
documents the ethical issue in Google. The issue which has been highlighted in the article is that
Google, the giant company in the search engine industry, has made a secretive plan of building a
search engine which would comply with Chinese censorship (the Guardian 2018). However, the
employees of the company protesting such unethical practice of the company signed a letter
calling an urgency to review the company’s ethics and transparency.

3
As mentioned in the article, Google has left China eight years back protesting the
Chinese censorship and the government limits to freedom of speech. However, the media reports
based on secret sources have claimed that the company has been working on a project called
Dragonfly, a Chinese search engine as secret practice (the Guardian 2018). The article states that
the search engine is being designed in a way that would block a range of websites as well as
some terms such as human rights and religion. The employees expressed their concern fearing
that they had been working unwittingly in the unethical development of a search engine which
will assist the country to suppress the freedom of expression (the Guardian 2018). In this regard
it is important that the great firewall of China is the internet censorship operation in the largest
scale across the whole world. The Chinese internet censorship gives no result for the searches on
Taiwanese or Tibetan independence, sites related to Dalai Lama, Chinese policies, pro-
democracy sites and incidents of military brutality like Tianamen Square massacre.
Discussion of the key ethical issues raised in the article
The major concern raised in the article is that the employees expressed their concern over
the whole idea of the development of a heavily censored version of Google’s search services
which they consider to be unethical since it will assist China in oppressing the freedom of speech
of the people of country (the Guardian 2018). Moreover, the article stated that the employees
claimed to be working on the project unwittingly. The employees of the company signed a joint
letter that calls on the leaders of the company to review its ethics and terms of transparency for
which the company withdrew its services from the country eight years back. The employees also
find it unethical since they had no knowledge about their work and especially the purpose of the
project. Hence, it is right to state that the article had stated two key issues in terms of ethics (the
Guardian 2018). The development of the project called Dragonfly violets the primary principal

4
of technological development which should benefit society and human wellbeing and no
initiative to inform the employees from the organization’s end regarding their work on this
particular project.
The article is an example of the most appropriate unethical decisions been made
As per the article, the major ethical business issue is the company’s continuation of secret
process of a technological development. The institute named Association of Computing
Machinery is considered to be the largest organization to provide support to the computing
professionals while securing their ethical practices by setting certain principles for them.
According to the codes set by the Association of Computing Machinery, the primary purpose of
a technological development must be something good contribution to the society and human well
being. However, the search engine project which Google intends to develop for the Chinese
market will be a heavily censored search engine. The search engine will give no results on the
searches on words like human rights or religion. Thus it can be understood that through the
project, Google will further help China to oppress its people’s freedom of speech breaching the
principles of ACM. The project will breach another principal of the ACM that states a
technological innovation must promote human rights and must protect the right of autonomy of
each individual.
However, it is seen that the search engine development by Google in terms of
technological innovation will neither promote human rights and right of autonomy since it will
give limitations on internet research on the most crucial matters like Taiwanese or Tibetan
independence, sites related to Dalai Lama, Chinese policies, pro-democracy sites and incidents
of military brutality like Tianamen Square massacre. Instead the project will further suppress the

5
freedom of speech of Chinese people for the sake of generating profits. On the other hand, as the
employees alleged the company were running this project without notifying the employees which
raises question on the ethical behavior as to why the company kept the employees uninformed.
This kind of approach certainly denotes the company’s breaching of its values while prioritizing
generating profit.
Aligning the discussion with the seven philosophies of ethics
While analyzing it can be seen that teleological theory of ethics and the theory of
relativist perspective have been violated since the decision of developing a technological
development was not to fulfill any good purpose in the society (Thiroux and Krasemann 2013).
Rather, the whole purpose of the technological development was to further strengthen the
intention of Chinese government’s suppression of freedom of speech of the Chinese people. The
decision of making highly censored search engine to comply with the Chinese censorship also
suggests the deviation of the company from the theory of ethical egoism as the company has
preferred to compromise with its values and ethics for the sake of gaining profit from the
Chinese market (LaFollette and Persson 2013). In addition the deviation from the theory of
Utilitarianism which promotes well being in the society is also evident from the issue presented
in the article (Mill 2016). On the other hand, according to deontology the company did not
adhere to the principals set by Association of Computing Machinery.
The decision of developing censored search engine also raises questions on the adherence
of virtue ethics of the leaders since the technological development denotes unethical practice
(Broad 2014). On the other hand while making the decisions and even after they made decision
of developing technological innovation the company did not provide information to the

6
employees regarding the project and its purpose (Rossouw and Van Vuuren 2017). While the
company’s value statement suggests that the company values freedom of speech, democracy and
personal autonomy, such action refers that the leadership has dropped these aspects at the time
when it decided to move to Chinese market (Amartya 2017). Hence, it can be seen that the
theory of justice has been violated in the company’s decision making of the above mentioned
technological development.
Conclusion
Hence, in order to conclude that the article has presented a true example of an issue of
business ethics. While discussing, the essay started by outlining the key arguments made in the
article with giving an overview of the background. The article mainly highlighted a business
issue occurred in Google as they attempted to develop highly censored search engine. The
article mainly highlighted a business issue occurred in Google as they attempted to develop
highly censored search engine. The two key issues have been drawn from the article are:
Google’s deviation from its ethics and non-informing the employees about the project and its
purpose. The discussion further elaborated on the main ethical issues focused in the article. The
article carried on the discussion based on the key arguments as to whether an appropriate ethical
decision has been made or not. The analytical part further related the seven moral philosophies
while aligning with the ethical discussion regarding the chosen article. The essay concludes by
giving a sum up of the whole essay.

7
References
Amartya, S.E.N., 2017. What do we want from a theory of justice?. In Theories of Justice (pp.
27-50). Routledge.
Broad, C.D., 2014. Five types of ethical theory. Routledge.
LaFollette, H. and Persson, I. eds., 2013. The Blackwell guide to ethical theory. John Wiley &
Sons.
Mill, J.S., 2016. Utilitarianism. In Seven Masterpieces of Philosophy (pp. 337-383). Routledge
Rossouw, D. and Van Vuuren, L., 2017. Business ethics. Oxford University Press.
the Guardian (2018). Google staff protest against plan for censored Chinese search engine.
[online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/17/google-
staff-protest-against-plan-for-censored-chinese-search-engine [Accessed 24 Sep. 2018].
Thiroux, J.P. and Krasemann, K.W., 1980. Ethics: Theory and practice. Glencoe Publishing
Company.

8
Appendix - a copy of the article
Google staff protest against plan for censored Chinese search engine
More than 1,000 employees sign letter calling on executives to review ethics and
transparency
Guardian staff and agencies
Fri 17 Aug 2018 04.19 BSTLast modified on Fri 17 Aug 2018 21.45 BST
Google employees have signed a letter calling on a review of transparency at the company.
Photograph: Aly Song/Reuters
More than 1,000 Google employees have signed a letter protesting against the company’s
secretive plan to build a search engine that would comply with Chinese censorship.
The letter’s contents were confirmed by a Google employee who helped organise it but wished to
stay anonymous. It calls on executives to review the company’s ethics and transparency; says
employees lack the information required “to make ethically informed decisions about our work”;
and complains that most employees only found out through media reports about the project,
nicknamed Dragonfly.
“We urgently need more transparency, a seat at the table and a commitment to clear and open
processes: Google employees need to know what we’re building,” says the document.
According to a New York Times report, Google engineers are working on software that would
block certain search terms and leave out content blacklisted by the Chinese government, so the
company can re-enter the Chinese market.
Google left China eight years ago due to censorship and hacking.

9
On Thursday, according to the New York Times, Google’s chief executive told staff that
development of the search engine was at an early stage and the company was not close to
launching a search app in China. Sundar Pichai told a company-wide meeting that providing
more services in the world’s most populous country fits with Google’s global mission.
Company executives have not commented publicly on Dragonfly and the remarks at the
company meeting are the first time the project has been mentioned since details about it were
leaked.
Employees have asked Google to create an ethics review group with rank-and-file workers,
appoint ombudspeople to provide independent review and internally publish assessments of
projects that raise substantial ethical questions.
Three former employees involved with Google’s past efforts in China told Reuters that current
leadership might think that offering limited search results in China is better than providing no
information at all.
The same rationale led Google to enter China in 2006. It left in 2010 over an escalating dispute
with regulators that was capped by what security researchers identified as state-sponsored
cyberattacks against Google and other large US firms.
The former employees said they doubt the Chinese government will welcome back Google. A
Chinese official, who declined to be named, told Reuters this month that it was “very unlikely”
Dragonfly would be available this year.
Google already offers a number of apps to Chinese users, including Google Translate and Files
Go, and the company has offices in Beijing, Shenzhen and Shanghai. But the largest of its
services – search, email and the Play app store – are all unavailable.
Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin has previously cited his birth in the Soviet Union in the 1970s

10
as explaining his opposition to enabling Chinese censorship. “It touches me more than other
people having been born in a country that was totalitarian and having seen that for the first few
years of my life,” he told the Guardian in 2010, as Google pulled its censorship from Chinese
search after four years of cooperating with the authorities.
The Chinese human rights community said Google’s acquiescence to China’s censorship would
be a “dark day for internet freedom”.