While I'm an open critic of Google I don't think in this case its a breach of that motto. Maybe a failure to disclose obligations to users.

Most people would understand the real culprit is the government. Microsoft and Amazon space there data centres geo graphically for a few reasons, and this is one of them.

I think the 'evil' part here is in this case the failure to disclose the fact(s).

The law's evil as well, agreed. The government did evil things passing it, in my world. But that doesn't seem to be the reason for the 'Google did evil' claim here.

When the government (that your business operates) is requiring you to hand over data what do you do? Is it Google's fault or the US government? I certainly don't think complying with the law is "evil". If the law is bad, fix the law.

I agree it's a very tough place to be.

About fixing the law -- In that case I would expect Google to fight the government on this point. I wonder if they are/will?