Google’s decision to come out in support of the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement is unlikely to win the company many new friends, and will provide further ammunition to those who say the company has long since gone back on its famed “Don’t be evil” motto.

Google’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel Kent Walker announced the company was throwing its weight behind the TPP in a blog post last Friday. He said he hoped the pact would be approved quickly by Congress, after it was signed off by officials from 11 participating nations earlier this year.

“The TPP is not perfect, and the trade negotiation process could certainly benefit from greater transparency,” Walker admitted in his post. “But, while Google will continue to advocate for process reforms, the pact overall represents a force for good on the Internet,” he insisted.

“Like many other tech companies, we look forward to seeing the agreement approved and implemented in a way that promotes a free and open Internet across the Pacific region,” he continued.

The TPP is a trade agreement between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Peru, Chile, New Zealand, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam. Proponents of the pact say the deal will make it easier for American firms to do business in the participating countries, because it does away with numerous taxes and trade barriers imposed on U.S.-made products. In turn, that will lead to greater job creation at home, they say.

One of the main reasons Google is behind the deal is that the TPP also comes with new provisions for copyright and intellectual property protection that will help to protect U.S. firms against counterfeiting, infringement and piracy, the company said. The TPP will balance copyright holder’s interests with those of the public interest, Walker said. Additionally, the TPP will ensure that cross-border transfer of data is more secure, Walker said, while prohibiting participating countries from demanding that Internet firms store local data within their borders – as nations such as Russia and Iran have recently demanded.

Just as important, the TPP will prohibit governments in participating nations from discriminating against foreign Internet service providers (ISPs), while limiting their ability to demand access to user’s data.

“We hope that the TPP can be a positive force and an important counterweight to restrictive Internet policies around the world,” Walker concluded.

Evil intentions?

But Google’s support of the TPP puts the company firmly at odds with numerous prominent critics of the deal, which includes individuals, organizations and rights advocacy groups, which argue that the agreement is designed to forward the interests of giant corporations at the expense of everyone else.

Many, including several U.S presidential candidates, have strongly criticized the TPP as a deal that will lead to more offshoring of jobs, reduced wages and unsafe imports. One of the most vocal critics of the TPP was Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, who has claimed the treaty was written for and by large corporations in the pharmaceutical and media industries. He argues that the pact could lead to lower wages, less benefits and reduced collective bargaining power for U.S. workers.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is another prominent critic, which warns that the restrictive new copyright and IP protection laws in the pact are designed to protect the interests of large multinational corporations only. It says the pact would lead to new restrictions being placed on journalists and whistleblowers, and limit the “fair use” of copyrighted materials.

TechDirt goes even further in its own commentary on Google’s decision, saying its belief that the pact will provide “strong copyright protections” as well as “fair and reasonable copyright exceptions and limitations” is totally misguided.

“The TPP expands copyright rules to ridiculous levels in many countries, including extending copyright terms at a time when there is no sound basis for advocating for extending copyright terms,” TechDirt claims. “The details showed that it’s not creating “fair and reasonable copyright exceptions and limitations,” but instead pushing a misleading tool that will limit the way countries can explore fair use, and (even more important) makes the fair use stuff optional.”

Regular netizens are also up in arms about Google’s decision. Numerous comments in response to Walker’s post on the Google blog reflect the widespread disappointment at Google’s decision to support the PTT.

“This is not at all good for consumers, especially in the declining middle class,” wrote one user, David Crane.

“So, the ‘don’t be evil’ era at Google is officially over?”, asked another anonymous poster.

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