Google Performs Drama, “Stirring Up Trouble,” Worldwide

Recently, the Internet community has not been very calm, and this is because Google is reluctant to keep quiet.

Since the beginning of the year, the American Internet search engine company has threatened to withdraw from the Chinese market on several occasions. On March 10, Google’s executives once again threatened that they will no longer abide by Chinese laws and regulations related to reviewing search content, even if this option leads to shutting down the Chinese search engine Google.cn and their withdrawal from the Chinese market. Recently, Western media has reported “Google and China Talks Break Down” and “Google Withdrawal from Chinese Market is Almost Inevitable.”

In just a few months, one might say that Google has performed a drama series of “I’m leaving” – “I’m not leaving” – “I don’t want to leave” for Internet users around the world. However, when the Western media overly concentrates its attention on China, we might as well take a good look at the world, and see what the “business conduct” of this business company is like on a global level?

First of all, let’s take a look at Google’s performance in Germany: losing its lawsuit for the right to use “Gmail” in Germany, the German government being against the “Google Maps” program, and the German news media’s anti-trust case against it. Perhaps it is the Germans’ strict and pragmatic nature that seems to clash with Google’s “romantic” nature, and Google always runs into a brick wall when it comes to its development in Germany.

It stands to reason that the United Kingdom and the United States have had a partnership based on friendship and mutual assistance, and in many international affairs they are able to maintain a consistency that is hard to come by. But this does not mean that life in the UK for Google is much better. Whether Google evades taxes of 450 million pounds in the UK, or Google is accused by British media companies for being “digital content thieves,” among other things, all illustrate the fact that there is more “trouble” here.

Representing the spirit of liberalism, France and Google — labeled as “doing no evil” — should be able to get along very well. However, things did not develop as people had imagined: First, Google France was fined 300,000 euros for book copyright infringement; next, a French court convicted Google of violating trademark rights of search ads for two companies; later on, Google Videos was suspected of infringement and sued by a French film company. There are a number of indications that point to commercial interest, and whether or not “evil” is involved is no longer important.

If Google has underperformed in the European market, its dominance in the Asian markets has encountered strong resistance from Koreans. On March 11, South Korea warned Google that if the Google mobile phone games do not comply with South Korean laws and regulations, Google will be penalized. South Korea said, “Providing gaming services without examining existing laws is an indisputable violation; we have asked Google to take corrective measures.” However, Google insisted that “they provide the same service all over the world, and South Korea is no exception.” The resulting contradictions: Stick to its so-called “global policy”, or comply with South Korean law?

Finally, let us turn our attention to the U.S. If foreign countries are not “fond of” Google, then there should be no problems in its home base, right? In fact, in these past few years, they have encountered many problems in the U.S., as well.

A bank clerk accidentally sent an e-mail that leaked loan information on 1,300 clients, containing names, addresses and tax ID numbers, to a Gmail account, making the bank very anxious. They quickly contacted Google and requested the removal of the confidential e-mail; however, in order to ensure the confidentiality of the Gmail account user’s information, Google refused. As a result, the bank took Google to court.

The examples above show that in Google’s worldwide drama performance of “stirring up trouble,” this has almost become the company’s “instinctive behavior.” This also means that Google’s “messing around” in China is not by chance, but it is the disregard of business ethics and corporate social responsibility, as well as having self interests above that of other countries. If Google cannot face up to its mistakes and is dead set in its ways, continuing with its worldwide performance of “stirring up trouble,” then it will be caught in the awkward situation of making enemies around the world.