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Sergey Brin has called on the US Government and businesses to put pressure on China as its ongoing row over censorship continues.
In an interview with The Guardian, Brin outlined his hopes for US Government intervention saying that, for a company that deals in information, trade and censorship were linked.
“Since services and information are our most successful exports, if regulations in China effectively prevent us from being competitive, then they are a trade barrier,” stated Brin.
He also called for businesses to evaluate their relationships with the Chinese government, balanced against the service they are providing to the Chinese people.
“The notion that any company should make any sort of decision other than to maximise profit?” Brin noted. “I would hope that larger companies would not put profit ahead of all else. Generally, companies should pay attention to how and where their products are used.”
He strongly criticised Microsoft, in particular, saying that it had adopted a pro-censorship stance simply to counteract Google.
“I’m very disappointed for them in particular," he said. "As I understand, they have effectively no market share – so they essentially spoke against freedom of speech and human rights simply in order to contradict Google.”
