Google Inc.'s fight with China over Internet censorship made headlines around the world, but it has been engaged in similar battles around the globe.
At least 25 countries, many of them with repressive regimes but even those with democracies, have at times blocked the public's access to Google over the last several years. All told, more than 40 countries actively censor the Internet, compared with a handful in 2004, which is when the OpenNet Initiative, a group of academics, began tracking global censorship.
Some countries are setting up powerful electronic barriers, similar to the "Great Firewall" in China, to control what the public can access. Others, such as Belize, have blocked Google Talk and Microsoft's MSN Messenger, as well as other services that allow people to talk to one another over the Internet.
"China has gotten a lot of press, but for us this is a global issue," said Nicole Wong, Google's deputy general counsel. "Censorship has certainly been on an upward trajectory, not just in China."
The Internet giant unplugged its search engine in mainland China last month to protest government restrictions. Google said China was where it wanted to take its most public stand because it felt the communist nation was becoming increasingly more repressive.
"It is a battle," Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said at a meeting of the American Society of News Editors on Sunday. "We know that there is a reasonably large group of people in China who are seeking non-censored information."
Critics say the company's earlier willingness to work with Chinese censorship laws may have actually exacerbated the problem, and emboldened some countries to tighten their citizens' access to the Internet. The stakes, they say, are high.
Thoughts? Should Google be censored? Why or why not?
2 comments:
My first impression was Google should not be censored because if people do not want to see certain information then they do not need to search for it. After Reading another article, http://bit.ly/cAlrlu, it talks about how other countries have requested for Google to censor information with criminal investigations and child pornography. I think this is a valid concern because this is protecting their country’s privacy and children.
I thought it was interesting how Google Chief Legal Officer says, "We believe that greater transparency will lead to less censorship. Unless companies, governments and individuals do something, the internet we know is likely to become ever more restricted - taking choice and control away from users and putting more power in the hands of those who would limit access to information." This goes along with our class discussions where users now have the ability to attain any information whenever and however they want, but if the Internet becomes more controlled we will go back to only knowing what the higher authority wants us to know.
Overall, I think Google should censor the Internet to protect the innocence of children and information that could be detrimental to individual countries, but not to the extent where people do not have the choice to search information they want to know.
this is interesting because I just read an article on Amazon that talks about how Amazon is now seeing alot of users in China. From what I understand Amazon is trying to see how much money they are actually making in China and is this a good move.
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