1. Why do you think so many American citizens and lawmakers reacted negatively to Google’s decision in 2006?

2. Does the fact that Google is an Internet company change societal expectations of it regarding information openness?

3. Was Google facing an ethical dilemma (values in conflict) in 2006?

4. Analyze the dilemma from consequentialist, deontological, and virtue ethics perspectives. Based on your analysis, what do you think is the right thing to do? Do you agree with Google’s CEO that the company made ‘‘a principled decision?’’ Why or why not?

5. Google’s motto is ‘‘Don’t Be Evil.’’ What does that mean? And how does it apply in this situation? Is the company living up to its motto? Is it a good motto?

6. Consider Google’s other values related to democracy, not doing evil, focusing on the user, providing information, and so on. Can Google do business in China and maintain these ideals? If so, how? If not, why not?

7. In defense of its 2006 decision, Google said that it complies with the law in countries where it does business. But the author of a book on IBM and the Holocaust says that IBM used the same defense in the 1930s when it provided Adolf Hitler with the tools to keep ‘‘the wheels of the Holocaust running on time.’’ The author says, ‘‘[they] want to be good Americans in the U.S. and good collaborators in China. They want it both ways but there are certain things we must not do.’’99 Do you agree with the company’s stance? If so, what changed in 2010?

8. Google and other companies routinely comply with government rules to censor other types of material—especially pornography, but also hate speech and other moral matters such as sexual images in Islamic countries. Are some forms of censorship acceptable? If so, where and how would you draw the line?

9. Tom Donaldson rejects ethical relativism (‘‘when in Rome’’) and ethical absolutism (insisting on exactly the same standards everywhere for every situation). Instead, he recommends that companies operating overseas adopt an ethical threshold based upon core values such as the Golden Rule and respect for human rights. Those must then be translated into specific guidelines. Do you think Google’s 2006 operating standards were consistent or inconsistent with Donaldson’s recommendations? If you were going to recommend a set of standards for Google, what would they say and why?

10. Every transcultural set of ethics standards for global business practice includes the principle of human rights. For example, the UN Global Compact says that companies should protect internationally proclaimed human rights and not be complicit in human rights abuses. The Caux Roundtable Principles state that businesses should contribute to human rights in the countries where they operate. Is Google’s behavior consistent with these expectations? Do you agree that the company ‘‘negotiated away users’ human rights’’ in 2006?

11. What about the company’s decision to pull out of China in 2010? Do you agree with it? How might it affect other companies doing business in China? Does it change how you think about the company’s original decision?

Gu Ge (roughly translated as ‘‘harvesting song’’) is the name Google gave to the mainland Chinese version of its Internet search service. Mainland China boasts a huge and growing market of Internet users (the biggest in the world and now ahead of the United States). But China also has arguably the most sophisticated government censorship in the world. The same Chinese government that censors films and bans television programs and rock bands is now sanitizing search pages by systematically filtering out keywords, pictures, and news accounts. The government also records every keystroke, records sites that individuals surf, and searches for any material that government authorities find offensive. Guards are also posted at Internet cafes to ensure that no one is looking at banned content.