Dear Google

via The NY Times:

Google said Tuesday that it would stop cooperating with Chinese Internet censorship and consider shutting down its operations in the country altogether, citing assaults from hackers on its computer systems and China’s attempts to “limit free speech on the Web.”

The move, if followed through, would be a highly unusual rebuke of China by one of the largest and most admired technology companies, which had for years coveted China’s 300 million Web users.

Since arriving here in 2006 under an arrangement with the government that purged its Chinese search results of banned topics, Google has come under fire for abetting a system that increasingly restricts what citizens can read online.

It's always a great thing when corporate America stands up for what is right, in a humanitarian sense. Whether it's Nike NOT working Asian children to the bone, or GM trying not to kill their employees' pensions, companies that care about something other than their quarterly reports are always a good look. Google, you've always been groundbreaking in terms of human resources, and how your company was run. That's why you suspending operations is so dope. You're like the Gandhi of the internet age, refusing to eat unless everyone's search engines are treated equally.

Yeah, we know having China on your roster was a security risk because people were hacking your site to get access to it. Yeah, we know you'll probably have to let go of a hefty amount of Chinese workers. In the short run, this might hurt. But in the long run, this sends a message that no country should be able to censor its people. Information is a right everyone needs to be afforded, and China is trying to play hardball, for what reason I don't know. It's not as if the Chinese people are a downtrodden, poor population. China is actually losing out by not cooperating with you. Hopefully they know that. Lord knows no one of the 1.3 billion heads in China wants to lose all of their e-mails and contacts. That'd be the real tragedy...