Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Google Whacked By China

This is a very sad story. Google have agreed to censor their own search engine in order to get Chinese government cooperation.

I'm really dissapointed in Google. It's their own call, as a private international corporation, what they do with regards to China, but at a time when they're taking on the US government over privacy I'd have liked to see their plucky liberal instincts refusing to make things easier for the Communist Party.

The presence of market liberalisation is increasingly allowing China to be portrayed as a moderate, Westernising state. Until, however, we see delivery of the civil liberties that necessarily accompany economic freedom, we should not cow to an evil regime, with scores of human rights abuses on its conscience.