Google

[billydkid]

I didn't see it myself, but a friend of mine told me he saw (or maybe heard on NPR, don't remember) and interview with the founder of Google. He said that United States is the only country in the world where the internet is censored. Thoughts? My personal feeling is that you either believe in censorship or you do not. I would think, the supposed leader of the "free world" would be that last place you would find censorship of any kind. Sadly, that has never been true. It strikes me as pathetic that we live in a country where our leaders do not trust its citizens to view or read whatever they want and use their own judgement.

I know there are many folks who do believe that some things should be censored. My question to those people is always the same, what if you have people in power who do not share your values? What if those people think you should not be allowed to view things or access information that is of interest to you? It has always galled me how we have always made a big show in this country about being the land of the free when in so many ways we never really have been. It strikes me as totally obvious that noone should be in a position of deciding what another person can view or read or learn about. There are many things in the way of ideas, information, "entertainments" and so on that I personally consider to be abominations, but I would not dream deciding for other people whether or not they should be allow to view them. Who am I to dictate? Who are you to dictate? Who is anybody else to dictate?

[zakur]

Except for blocking access to certain sites in public schools and libraries (as required under CIPA (http://www.cybertelecom.org/cda/cipa.htm)), the government does not censor the Internet in this country.

China (http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/filtering/china/), on the other hand . . .

[Boo]

billy,

I believe your friend may have misheard. I have had the opportunity to use a computer that bounces the IP address evry so often, as such I have logged onto Google pages from various countries including Colombia, Saudia Arabia that have also edited or censored sites for content.


Regardless, it seems to be more a function of IP providers that take it upon themselves to censor not a function of the 'Gubmint'. That is what makes a competitive market place. You can choose the type of provider that limits for you or not.



Boo