Negotiating 'Evil': Google, Project Maven and the Corporate Form

Crofts, P; Van Rijswijk, H

Negotiating 'Evil': Google, Project Maven and the Corporate Form

Crofts, P

Van Rijswijk, H

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Publisher:: Queensland University of Technology
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Law, Technology and Humans

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Crofts, P https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6018-7159	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Van Rijswijk, H https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9180-0078	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Law, Technology and Humans	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/139024
dc.description.abstract	<jats:p>‘Don’t be evil’ was part of Google’s corporate code of conduct since 2000; however, it was quietly removed in April or May 2018 and subsequently replaced with ‘do the right thing’. Questions were raised both internally and externally to the organisation regarding the substantive meaning of this imperative. Some have highlighted the company’s original intentions in creating the code of conduct, while others have used the motto as a basis for critiquing the company—such as for its advertising practices, failure to pay corporate tax or the manipulation of Google-owned content. The imperative’s removal occurred at a time when thousands of Google employees, including senior engineers, signed a letter protesting the company’s involvement in Project Maven, a Pentagon program that uses artificial intelligence to interpret video imagery, which could in turn be used to improve the targeting capability of drone strikes. Employees asserted their refusal to be involved in the business of war and expressed their wariness of the United States government’s use of technology. This article will examine the legal construct and concept of the corporation, and whether it is possible for corporations to not be evil in the twenty-first century.</jats:p>	en_US
dc.publisher	Queensland University of Technology	en_US
dc.relation	http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DE180100577
dc.relation.ispartof	Law, Technology and Humans	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	10.5204/lthj.v2i1.1313	en_US
dc.title	Negotiating 'Evil': Google, Project Maven and the Corporate Form	en_US
dc.type	Journal Article
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Law
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - LRC - Law Research Centre
utslib.copyright.status	open_access
pubs.publication-status	Published online	en_US

Abstract:

‘Don’t be evil’ was part of Google’s corporate code of conduct since 2000; however, it was quietly removed in April or May 2018 and subsequently replaced with ‘do the right thing’. Questions were raised both internally and externally to the organisation regarding the substantive meaning of this imperative. Some have highlighted the company’s original intentions in creating the code of conduct, while others have used the motto as a basis for critiquing the company—such as for its advertising practices, failure to pay corporate tax or the manipulation of Google-owned content. The imperative’s removal occurred at a time when thousands of Google employees, including senior engineers, signed a letter protesting the company’s involvement in Project Maven, a Pentagon program that uses artificial intelligence to interpret video imagery, which could in turn be used to improve the targeting capability of drone strikes. Employees asserted their refusal to be involved in the business of war and expressed their wariness of the United States government’s use of technology. This article will examine the legal construct and concept of the corporation, and whether it is possible for corporations to not be evil in the twenty-first century.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/139024