I am on this side of Google: the pretty white page with a sometimes amusing logo and the promising rectangle that can answer my every question. Sort of.
If Google claims to follow the motto “Don’t be evil”, I have no reason to disbelieve. After all, how could I trust it to offer me endless knowledge if I thought it was evil? I am still not convinced, after reading Halavais, Blanke, and Vaidhyanathan, that Google or its employees have actively broken their own rule.
The issue is that with great power comes great responsibility (thanks Uncle Ben). Google, as the provider of answers for my and almost everyone else’s answers, has to make decisions that fall in a great plain of gray. And when Google chooses to allow hate speech to be among the top three results for a specific search, they are found to be doing evil in the eyes of many. But if they choose to suppress such content, then they are cataloged as evil in the eyes of those who champion free speech.
So, what is poor old Google to do? I think that their standard of avoiding evil is something good, something great. Would it be better for them to say “Don’t cause too much controversy”? I don’t think so. But, as consumers we should not put our trust on companies and their claims. It does not matter how good they claim to be. Same with politicians, but that’s another post.
As internet users and media consumers in general, we need to understand that mindless acceptance does not lead to good. By good, I mean the opposite of evil. We need to actively question the actions of anyone that claims to be doing good. I believe anyone that has transitioned successfully from puberty into adulthood has learned that nothing is what seems to be at face value. We, as internet users, need to see the reflection of this reality in the digital age. Amazon makes you happy, Google is not evil, Facebook is for connecting. Or not.
So let’s allow, and encourage companies to have great claims. Let’s hold them accountable, as much possible, to their promises. But let’s not forget that we need to make an individual assessment in order to determine if a page is being evil or not.
So what can regular consumers do to hold companies like Google accountable to their slogans?
One option would be to simply choose to stop using Google as they discourage the use of Google by sharing what they find to be questionable actions on their behalf.
Another option would be to take a more proactive stand and push for federal laws to limit the freedoms of companies that hold so much information and power.
The first one is somewhat weak, the second increases the scope of a government, which in the end is an organization that holds power and information. Ay ay ay.