Contact: Jack Ucciferri – 707.252.6166
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 8, 2008
Napa, California
Google, Inc. founder agrees generally with proposals calling for Google to do more to stop censorship, and human rights violations in China
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Ca. - Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, Inc. surprised those attending the tech giant's Annual Meeting here Thursday afternoon by disclosing that he agreed in principle with stockholder proposals calling for Google to do more to stop censorship and human rights violations in China.
Brin abstained on the vote to create a "board of directors level Committee on Human Rights," as presented by John Harrington of Napa-based Harrington Investments, Inc. It eventually was defeated.
Brin also would not vote against another ultimately defeated proposal, presented by Amnesty International's regional Business and Human Rights coordinator Tony Cruz, on behalf of NYC pension funds. It called for Google to "resist" and not "engage" in "pro-active censorship in "authoritarian" governments.
Google executives also confirmed - for the first time - that the firm is now supporting the Global Online Freedom Act, which makes it a crime for U.S. companies to turn over personal information of users to governments of "internet-restricting countries" who would use the information to repress its citizens.
Google and other high tech firms have come under heavy criticism for restricting Internet content the Chinese government deems subversive. Google's refusal to disclose the search results it filters, or to challenge the Chinese government on violations of its own constitution only furthers the abuses there, critics charge.
"While we are disappointed with decision by Google' board vote defeat these proposal, we are heartened by the level of support we've received from shareholders at large, given this is the first year we've introduced this type of resolution," said Harrington.
"Google now recognizes it is violating its own mission and principles, to make the world's information universally accessible without doing evil, by censoring search results in China. Google is not yet taking sufficient action to address the problem, and must stop doing the dirty work for China's government. We will continue the dialogue with them," added Robert Rossof, Business & Economic Relations Specialist for Amnesty International USA.
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