The Chinese people may or may not be better off with a censored Google. The rest of the world would be worse off with a Google that has to take orders from the Chinese government.
Hypothetically: Google starts making tons of cash from China. China threatens to cut off the cash-flow if certain results aren't removed from search results outside of China (or something similar).
We'd like to think Google wouldn't do this just for the money, but Dragonfly sets precedent that it would do something just for the money.
If Google makes enough money from China, they would have as much leverage against China as China has against it. The resulting social unrest caused by a major search engine disappearing in China would far exceed any benefit they would get from censoring other countries. In my opinion, it's much more dangerous to allow Chinese tech companies to have a free monopoly without any resistance.
> The resulting social unrest caused by a major search engine disappearing in China
There was no social unrest in China when Google pulled out and I’m pretty sure that in the scenario you’re describing, the Chinese wouldn’t give a fuck.
I mean they have had plenty of reasons for social unrest thus far, far better reasons actually and it did not happen.
> it's much more dangerous to allow Chinese tech companies to have a free monopoly without any resistance.
When Google pulled out of China, they has no market share. If Dragonfly isn't successful, they'll abandon that as well. There is a lot of social unrest in China. China does a good job at preventing it from escalating with supression, but that cost would certainly outweigh any benefits of China trying to mess with Google outside their jurisdiction. This isn't even considering how the US simply just wouldn't allow Google to do so.
> Seriously? Why?
Because this is actually happening. We're basically giving up billions of dollars to China for free.
So you're saying that people of a sovereign nation use local products and that is somehow dangerous. You're also saying that you're entitled to their money.
I find this line of thinking to be very troubling, to be honest.
