Index Siteorum Prohibitorum
Jim Davies at Strike the Root - commentary on Google's new censorship-if-the-local-gummint-demands-it policy. [root]
Google was quoted on the "News Hour" as responding that this pre-censorship would provide their users with "a more satisfactory Internet experience" in that they would not be led, by the search engine, to a site that was blocked by the primary censors; that is, they would not waste time. Thus was this California company, which a mere few years ago was started by two very bright and entrepreneurial young Americans, interposing itself to judge which was more important to a Chinese enquirer: knowledge (even partial knowledge, as above) or time. Time is money, of course; but is not knowledge something close to life itself?
Interviewee MacKinnon was asked about any wider significance of the Google policy and it was during her reply that I observed the aforementioned "delicious moment." She said that in order to implement it, the company had had to set up substantial resources, of software and personnel and management, and that those resources "might be used . . ." - and here she hesitated, with a perfectly straight face and apparently searching for the correct phrase. I immediately shouted at the TV screen, "IN AMERICA !" but alas, that device is built for only one-way communication. So she never heard me, and continued "... in other places."