Shareholders To Vote On Google Censorship In China

Google Faces Pressure Over Censorship from WebProNews reports that Google’s shareholders will have the right to vote at the upcoming annual meeting on the issue of censorship in China and other “abusive regimes.” Marketwatch and BetaNews both also have earlier coverage.

The Office of the Comptroller of New York City holds 486,617 shares of Google’s Class A stock, and they want to use their influence to stop Google from operating in China under such restraints.

Google is urging other shareholders to reject the proposal from The Office of the Comptroller of New York City.

Postscript From Danny: And if a majority of shareholders vote in favor of the motion? Nothing. That’s because Google has a two-tier class of stock where the real power over how the company runs resides with those having Class B stock — owned mostly by Google’s cofounders and insiders.

Ironically, a shareholder challenge by a bricklayer’s union against that structure was voted down by shareholders last year — not that it would have passed based on their votes alone.

About The Author

Barry Schwartz

Barry Schwartz a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.