If a condition is already bad, why bother trying to make it better? ie:
> Any claim that Google would have helped China censor Chinese citizens ignores the fact that Chinese search engines are already censored
"...so it isn't helping, it's just business as usual."
The counterpoint is that having choice is helpful, especially when the choices include user segments, even if you don't experience it. Also, participating in oppressive behavior is immoral, regardless of the outcome.
While I understand the instinct to collaborate, I don't see it. No one is better than Google at correlating and extrapolating data about people. Any relatively minor improvements that Google provides would seem to be overwhelmed by handing these new data gathering and correlation capabilities to the Chinese government.
> Any claim that Google would have helped China censor Chinese citizens ignores the fact that Chinese search engines are already censored
"...so it isn't helping, it's just business as usual."
The counterpoint is that having choice is helpful, especially when the choices include user segments, even if you don't experience it. Also, participating in oppressive behavior is immoral, regardless of the outcome.