In general, utilitarianism is an ethical system most often attributed to John Stuart Mill and Jeremy Bentham, both 19th century social philosophers commenting on conditions arising from the Industrial Revolution. Utilitarianism holds that the most ethical thing one can do is any action that will maximize the happiness within an organization or society. Actions have quantitative outcomes and the ethical choices that lead to the "greatest good for the greatest number" are the appropriate decisions, even if that means subsuming the rights of certain individuals. It is considered to be a consequential outlook in the sense that while outcomes cannot be predicted the judgement of an action is based on the outcome -- or, "the ends justify the means" (Robinson and Groves, 2003).
For Google, then, the issue at its core was to continue allowing censorship of Chinese issues based on governmental regulations, or simply state, we will no longer censor anything, and if that means not doing business in your country, so be it. If we replace China with Fascist Germany, for instance, and go back in time 60 years, would anyone question the morality of a search engine Internet company refusing to allow anti-Jewish materials to be distributed on its platform? The issue is similar -- Good knew, and therefore had the moral obligation, to "do no evil" and refrain from allowing an...
Additionally, the Internet has changed global communication, advertising, and the sharing of information inexorably. The world quickly knows what happens in countries even if those countries try to censor (e.g. violence in Iran, etc.). If China wishes to remain an important player in the global economy, and we may be quite sure it does, then it will likely bow to global pressure regarding excessive censorship, and, in this case, being caught with tacit hands in the cookie jar regarding cyber-terrorism.
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Drucker, P.F., et.al. (2001). Harvard Business Review on Decision Making. Harvard "Google vs. China." (January 14, 2010). The Washington Post. Cited in:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/13/AR2010011302908.html
Google Corporation. (2010). "A New Approach to China." Google Blog. Cited in:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html
Robinson, D. And J. Groves. (2003). Introducing Political Philosophy. Icon Books.
Sisler, D. (2001). "The Needs of the Few Outweigh the Needs of the Many."
DavidSissler.Com.Cited in: http://davidsisler.com/05-09-2001.htm
