There is an anti-Google meme floating around the blogosphere that poses the following comparison:
However that view is fallacious, the accurate depiction is this.
Censorship is evil and should be opposed in all of its forms, but let’s be clear about who is conducting the censorship – the Chinese government.
I’m not sure if there is a belief that all Chinese are dissidents searching for ways to oppose the government or if the only thing that the internet is good for is to search for essays on democracy, Tiananmen, Taiwan and Tibetan independence and Falun Gong, but Google will make lives easier for the Chinese citizens that choose to use it.
I’m certain that the citizens of China know what they are missing, or at the very least know that something is missing since the page says so (via Google Translation).
According to the local law laws and regulations and the policy, partially searches the result does not demonstrate.
You are not must look for: Tiananmen
The oppressive Chinese regime will not be successful in keeping its citizens ignorant any more than the prohibition prevented drinking, the drug prohibition has prevented drug use or the criminalization of sex has stomped out prostitution.
Don’t begrudge the 100 million internet users in China their small advances, without Google they would simply be stuck with the information that the government provided and I know they would be worse off for it.
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