Second Life Op/Ed on China, Business, Dissidents, and the Internet

Filed in archive News on March 8, 2008

The Second Life Herald published an interesting op/ed piece yesterday on "The Problem with China." The problem, of course, is dissidents - and what to do about them when the government of the People's republic of China comes knocking on your company doors and asking "Who said that...?"

Second Life has an image I think as kind of a liberal inteligencia playground. You'd expect the sort of bleeding heart, tree hugger answer to the question that you'd find at protest rallies when the G-8 meets. So I found piece's answer to the China problem to be initially surprising. The answer, basically, is that companies like Yahoo, Google, and (yes) Second Life have their own interests to consider when the PRC comes knocking at the door. Those interests are financial and have to reflect the views of their users and consumers. They give the PRC what it wants when it comes around (or they don't, and suffer the consequences) because that's what benefits their business interests - that's what their customers want.

And here I was thinking that some things have to do with right and wrong....






I was disappointed with the opinion. I've always felt like that especially the leaders in the business community had an obligation to be less mercenary and occasionally try to change the consumer's mind instead of blindly following the will of the mob.

Read the opinion in the Second Life Herald yourself and see what you think of it.