California Conservative

In today’s S.F. Chronicle, Debra J. Saunders has a great op-ed on the recent Google controversy. Key excerpts (emphasis ours):

Google painted itself as heroic in refusing to help the U.S. Department of Justice’s efforts to reinstate a 1998 federal law on online child pornography, then revealed that it was going to help the Chinese government suppress free speech. That sort of goes against the company’s informal corporate motto: “Don’t be evil.”

I realize how eager those in the Bay Area are to believe that the evil Bush administration wants to double as Big Brother and eavesdrop on well-meaning peaceniks. So it doesn’t matter that the DOJ isn’t looking for information on individual accounts — but instead wanted data on how the Internet is used during a given week to see how adults access child porn.

. . .

You have to marvel at Google’s great marketing ploy. The company amasses founts of information on users of Google. Yet, by riding on the coattails of an anti-Bush sentiment, Google claims the mantle of champion of privacy rights. “We intend to resist (the government’s) motion vigorously,” said a Google lawyer in a statement.

All hail Google. The Google-philes fawn as if bashing the Bushies in the Bay Area is an act of courage, when it’s the most popular — and probably profitable — thing a company can do.

Meanwhile, back in Beijing, Google has agreed to filter out sites that the Chinese government doesn’t like. The Chinese government won’t have to rely on its fleet of monitoring devices that block out “subversive” content from the West, such as information on the Tiananmen Square protest , Tibet and Taiwan. Google will do the dirty work.

. . .

It may be only a matter of time before Google starts acting like other Internet providers that also censor for China. Last year, Yahoo helped the Chinese government prosecute a dissident reporter. This month, Microsoft shut down a pesky blog. As the Associated Press reported, Microsoft’s service in China bars such terms as “democracy” and “human rights.”

. . .

I understand that Google wants to make a profit. I just don’t know how company execs garner the image of little guys standing up to big, bad government.

UPDATE:
On a lighter note, Mark Fiore announces “iRepress.” Heh.
That explains it.

Michelle Malkin: “The China-Google Protest Logo Album”

RELATED:
When Do Liberals Agree To Censorship?
Google Teams up with the ACLU
Google Loses Round 2

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 26th, 2006 at 11:15 am and is filed under Asia, California, Media, Op-Ed, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.