Comment by itp
4 years ago
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don%27t_be_evil
> "Don't be evil" is a phrase used in Google's corporate code of conduct, which it also formerly preceded as a motto.
> Following Google's corporate restructuring under the conglomerate Alphabet Inc. in October 2015, Alphabet took "Do the right thing" as its motto, also forming the opening of its corporate code of conduct.[1][2][3][4][5] The original motto was retained in Google's code of conduct, now a subsidiary of Alphabet. In April 2018, the motto was removed from the code of conduct's preface and retained in its last sentence.[6]
I know saying Google removed Don't Be Evil is something of a trope, but the truth is a little more complicated. And, of course, the presence or absence of this phrase has no necessary bearing on the degree to which they are perceived as evil or not!
Right, but it's funny how these things tend to correlate. For example, the US Department of War became the US Department of Defense in 1949, arguably around the time when its primary business switched from Defense to War.
Not uncoincidentally this was the year 1984 was published, and Newspeak is the official language of Oceania, so..
"Hilariously", thirty years later, the company that would go on to put a camera in everyone's living room and pocket ran this commercial: https://vimeo.com/312710573
spot on .. I'm afraid
Evil is frequently caught masquerading as “do the right thing”.
“Don’t be evil” is nearly the opposite guidance.