http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TEC_GOOGLE_GOVERNMENT_DEMANDS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2010-04-20-19-39-15
Story from the AP feed about Google and Internet censorship. I've been following the Google/China censor debate for some time--even once or twice halting all use of Google as a search engine for curbing to government pressure. However, I greatly approve of the way in which they have now handled the situation.
They have posted a page on their website (a screenshot of which is available in the link to to AP article) which describes which governments have requested Google to censor something (except for China, due to the material being kept a "state secret" for now) and how often it's happened. This is, in a way, kind of the backfire element of the Patriot Act. Originally, the Patriot Act allowed the government of the United States to spy on citizens without warrant--thus causing many people to conjure up a "V for Vendetta" scenario--and without their knowledge. Now, Google is making people aware of what the government does and what they choose to investigate. Google is saying "They came to us for personal information about our users" though without any great detail. The result is that now we have the ability to watch the watchers.
JPC
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