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At least according to Sergey at the time, the key issue was "opposing censorship and speaking out for the freedom of political dissent". > Brin: I don't think

At least according to Sergey at the time, the key issue was "opposing censorship and speaking out for the freedom of political dissent". > Brin: I don't think it's a question of taking on China. In fact, I am a great admirer of both China and the Chinese government for the progress they have made. It is really opposing censorship and speaking out for the freedom of political dissent, and that's the key issue from our side. >SPIEGEL: Four years ago, you allowed your service to be censored. Why have you changed your mind now? >Brin: The hacking attacks were the straw that broke the camel's back. There were several aspects there: the attack directly on Google, which we believe was an attempt to gain access to Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. But there is also a broader pattern we then discovered of simply the surveillance of human rights activists. http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/google-co-founder-on-pulling-out-of-china-it-was-a-real-step-backward-a-686269.html http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/google-co-found...

adrianmonk 8y ago
I always thought there were two ways to interpret that, and I was never sure which one was correct. One is that the hack made Google realize it was not a good, stable place to do business, and the other reasons were just a good PR side effect. The other is that the hack gave Google occasion to reevaluate, and they realized being involved in that kind of censorship didn't sit right with them. I suppose it could also be some of both.
- londons_explore 8y ago
  There were other, bigger, non-public reasons.
  - dyarosla 8y ago
    Care to elaborate?
    - londons_explore 8y ago
      You'll probably have to wait for Larry or Sergey to write their memoirs...
baybal2 8y ago
> > Brin: I don't think it's a question of taking on China. In fact, I am a great admirer of both China and the Chinese government for the progress they have made. It is really opposing censorship and speaking out for the freedom of political dissent, and that's the key issue from our side. It reads to me like: "I really oppose prostitution, but I go to prostitutes anyways"

adrianmonk 8y ago

I always thought there were two ways to interpret that, and I was never sure which one was correct. One is that the hack made Google realize it was not a good, stable place to do business, and the other reasons were just a good PR side effect. The other is that the hack gave Google occasion to reevaluate, and they realized being involved in that kind of censorship didn't sit right with them. I suppose it could also be some of both.

londons_explore 8y ago
There were other, bigger, non-public reasons.
- dyarosla 8y ago
  Care to elaborate?
  - londons_explore 8y ago
    You'll probably have to wait for Larry or Sergey to write their memoirs...

baybal2 8y ago

> > Brin: I don't think it's a question of taking on China. In fact, I am a great admirer of both China and the Chinese government for the progress they have made. It is really opposing censorship and speaking out for the freedom of political dissent, and that's the key issue from our side. It reads to me like: "I really oppose prostitution, but I go to prostitutes anyways"