If they cared about the truth, the Tiananmen square would be available for computer users in China...
Right, because if Google decides that they'll display *all* results for Tiananmen, Tibet, Xinjiang, etc., the Government wouldn't block them at all... Google *cannot* give information to the Chinese people that the Chinese government does not want them to see. If they try, they will be blocked and we will be back to where we started, except with one less search engine available to Chinese people.
Besides, I'm fairly sure Google censors content in America too. I'm not certain of that, but I'd be *extremely* surprised if you could find, say, Child Porn through a Google search, no matter where in the world you are located. If you can, then the rest of my post will look a bit silly, but I certainly wasn't going to looking for it. Don't see anyone making a fuss about that, though, because we all agree (well, almost all - the people who produce it probably don't) that Child Porn is *wrong*. And viewing it is against the law.
It's not like anyone's really noticed, since this isn't something you go and search for every day (well, I *hope* it isn't...), and I reckon that most people would instinctively agree with the decision to censor it. Hell, they probably wouldn't have it any other way. But then, as soon as Google (according to another countries laws) starts censoring things that we think people should have a right to find, we get all up in arms. This is despite the fact that a lot of the people on whose behalf we are aggrieved probably agree with the censorship.
So who the hell decides what it's OK to censor and what's not OK? The Government? Hmm... Don't think I like that idea, relying on the Government to do our thinking for us has lead to all sorts of problems. The majority? Well, since the majority seem happy to let the Government do the thinking for them, I think this is basically the same as the first option... Where does that leave us? Letting some minority of people decide what it's OK to censor and what's not? But which minority? The most vocal one? Seems even worse than the government to me...
Maybe we just shouldn't censor anything. *Anything*. If people want to look up Child Porn then we'll let them, and just arrest them later. But wait, what's stopping the Government from passing laws and arresting/fining/harassing/etc. people who view things they don't approve of?
This looks like a tricky question, and I don't believe there's a perfect answer. Shit, there might not even be a good answer, just a 'less bad' one...
If we start down this road, the next stop is censoring the 9/11 conspiricy folks, because they're ideas are disturbing people, and so on and so on...
Wouldn't be too terribly surprised, to be honest. And who's going to stand up for them? People already think they're weird (I think they're weird. Harmless, mostly, but weird), and if you're on their side you risk being seen as 'one of them'.
And again, most people *won't notice*. Maybe they're wonder why they don't see all these 9/11 conspiracy crackpots around so much, but I can't imagine it will worry them. They'll just be happy the internet is a 'cleaner' place.
Guess it's up to us to ensure that we're censoring the right things. Well, us and everyone else who actually gives a shit...
