Censorship

Follow up to the noluv4google.com stuff. This was in their FAQ.

Q: I heard Google is legally required to censor some search results in the U.S. and Europe - isn't this the same?

A: While we don't support censorship, we feel it is completely inappropriate to compare legal restrictions on websites containing child pornography (in the U.S) or Neo-Nazi hate speech (in Germany) to the suppression of information about human rights and democracy in China and Tibet. But don't take our word for it... Congressman Tom Lantos says, "in essence, [this] equates the vile language and evil purposes of Neo-Nazi groups and hate speech with content provided by the human rights activists of Falun Gong, by journalists and by democracy activists in China. There simply is no comparison between efforts of the democratically-elected government of the Federal Republic of Germany to move against hate-mongerers, and the Chinese regime cracking down on religious freedom, human rights and democracy."

I don't totally agree. You can't have it both ways. Censorship is censorship. The level of which is decided upon by a government body. To me they ARE comparable. One has decided to make certain content illegal, another has decided to make other content illegal (and a quote from a Congressman or Senator isn't always saying much). I understand the argument that one set of laws was made by a government elected by the people, and the other was made by a government oppressing a people. But it kind of reminds me of pre-civil war. A democratically elected body provided provisions for slavery. Just because it's democratically elected doesn't make it right. Now of course I think what China is doing is wrong, and I think there should be censorship on child porn (not necessarily hate speech...but...*shrug* that's just me). I guess I just don't like their argument. Call it for what it is.

Q: Isn't it better for Google to be engaged in China in this way than not at all?

A: Google was already operating a Chinese-language search portal in China and in fact enjoyed the second-largest market share as well as the highest rating from users. However, the Chinese government's 30,000 internet police and China's "great firewall" were responsible for censoring websites and sanitizing users' search results. Now, Google has custom-built a websearch platform - Google.cn - to the Chinese authorities' specifications, doing their dirty work for them, and more effectively. This will make it harder for people in China and Tibet to access real information, not easier.

Just not true. They still have access to www.google.com and can get to the same information they always could. Nothing has been taken away. Information has only been added. Now they can reach stuff that isn't censored faster and more reliably. There's a lot of information out there that isn't censored. Maybe some people thought it was important to provide those Billion people with that information reliably instead of settling for a sub par access.

Okay...this is a rant that I'm not terribly passionate about, yet obviously do have an opinion about that I realize is just that...an opinion. So...I'm pretty open to arguments from the other side (unless the other side is making dumb "break up with Google" websites). Or...feel free to just glaze over this post like the last one.

Happy Valentine's Day all!