Video: ‘Don’t Be Evil’ Is Tough For Google In China

BOSTON — Technologist David Weinberger says Google’s commitment to “not being evil” may no longer be possible in China. The search superpower says it’s considering pulling out of China after its Gmail servers were hacked — and that Chinese human rights activists were the targets.

“Google could, I suppose, stay in at the risk of being hacked and provide search results that are censored, in an environment where even instant messages are censored,” says Weinberger, a fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

“But there’s not a lot of room for them to do good of the Western sort that we all like, given the control that the Chinese government has over the very architecture of the Internet.”

WBUR spoke with Weinberger about Google and China at our studios.