It all started a while back when Google agreed to censor itself to move into China. A screenshot captures the story well. Despite a defense from Bill Gates, human rights groups and others aren’t really impressed. Oh, and Wired does a pretty good job of summing up the who, what, where, when, and why of the whole thing. I thhought the following summed up effectively why I’m not a big fan of this move:
Google’s decision rankled Reporters Without Borders, a media watchdog group that has sharply criticized Internet companies including Yahoo and Microsoft’s MSN.com for submitting to China’s censorship regime.
“This is a real shame,” said Julien Pain, head of Reporters Without Borders’ internet desk. “When a search engine collaborates with the government like this, it makes it much easier for the Chinese government to control what is being said on the internet.”
On one hand, I have to say that I’m not really a fan of Google censoring itself to make it into China. However, I’m also willing (at least partly) to buy their argument that “some information is better than no information.” The more access the more people get to more information, the better. Okay. I just worry that Google’s dug itself a whole it won’t be able to dig out of. For a company with a motto of “don’t be evil,” they seem to be taking a step back.
But it gets worse. I read Scott-O-Rama, a delightful and quirky gay blog, and found this. What? I wanted to believe it was an isolated incident…until I found that they weren’t the only ones. Leafing through the comments, I found this:
Thank you for this post and it is important for you and your readers to know that this is not an isolated case. We have received hundreds of emails from gay sites that contained appropriate content and were harassed and targeted by the HOMOPHOBIC GOOGLE GORILLA.
Please also note: the article at BEST GAY BLOGS was about us, We posted that original article of 1/18/07 and part 2 on 1/23/07. BEST GAY BLOGS simply re-posted our article on their front page for their readers.
All right. Now they aren’t just helping to maintain high levels of censorship, but they’re also getting homophobic when the boys show a little skin or sell some undies. Here, the story gets more confusing. As I searched, I found that PinkNews, another gay new source I trust, posted this article about Google laying the smackdown on a homophobic website. So while Google may not be comfortable showing gay skin, they don’t seem to take too kindly to the homophobes either. I’m generous enough to believe Google is a big company and the homohating Scott and company experienced had more to do with some middle managers advertising issues than with a political move against homos worldwide. So thank you Google, for only sort of being sinohomophobic. You make my heart all a-flutter.
My gay skin: Graham Ackerman, an openly gay Olympic gymnast.
That said, I think Mother Jones sums it all up too well with the simple Is Google Evil?
So can you trust Google only as far as you can trust the Bush administration? “I don’t know,” Wong replied. “I’ve never been asked that question before.”
I’ve leave this up to you.
