Google, we hardly knew you
Frida Ghitis The Boston Globe

THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 2006


ATLANTA A few years ago, I walked into an Internet room in Tibet's capital, Lhasa. There were no Chinese soldiers in the room, and no visible government censors nearby. A sign on the wall, however, reminded Web users that even after entering the stateless world of the Web, China's all-seeing eye had not disappeared. "Do not use Internet," the warning instructed crassly, "for any political or other unintelligent purposes."

Since then, China's ruling regime has perfected the science of controlling what the Chinese can read or write on the Internet to such a degree that it has become the envy of tyrants and dictators the world over. We might have expected that from a regime that has proved it will do whatever it takes to stay in power. What we never expected was to see Google, the company whose guiding motto reads "Don't be evil," helping in the effort.

Google's decision to help China censor searches on its brand-new Chinese Web site is not only a violation of its own righteous-sounding principles and an affront to those working to bring human rights to the Chinese people. No, Google's sellout to Beijing is a threat to every person who ever used Google anywhere in the world. That means all of us.

That's no exaggeration. Google saves every search, every e-mail, every fingerprint we leave on the Web when we move through its Google search engine, or its Gmail service, or its fast-growing collection of Internet offerings. Google knows more about us than the FBI or the CIA or the NSA or any spy agency of any government. And nobody regulates it.

When a company that holds digital dossiers on millions of people decides profits are more important than principles, we are all at risk. Google will now participate actively in a censorship program whose implications, according to Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society, "are profound and disturbing." The Chinese government blocks thousands of search terms - including censorship.

To be fair, Google is hardly alone in its decision to capitulate to Beijing's rulers in order to gain a Web share of... [more]

(Frida Ghitis writes about world affairs and is the author of ''The End of Revolution: A Changing World in the Age of Live Television.'' This article first appeared in The Boston Globe.)