Akkam’s Razor

Congress wags their fingers at the major US internet companies (via BoingBoing)… Informationlab links to this tool by the OpenNet Initiative that will show you what “our” Google and “their” Google return when searching… and notorious hacker group, the Cult of the Dead Cow (Wikipedia), chimes in with sage commentary about the China syndrome:

Let’s get the obvious out of the way. Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, and Cisco (­not to mention the legion of other predatory IT firms doing business in China) suck a fat one. You can’t have it both ways, guys. You can’t reap the rewards of developing your business in the home of the free and the land of the brave, then turn around and flush hard won democratic values down the crapper. OK, enough about your sorry asses.

Plenty of people in the blogosphere, like Jason Calanacis and Davie Winer, as well as Bill Gates are chiming in on the debate over Google agreeing to censor their results in China. The Senate, in a typical grandstanding move, decided to admonish the company.

Winer’s logic, particularly is interesting, simple because he’s taking the longview - there will be some unintended consequences. But not the one he’s thinking of (that China will force us to hide their dirty laundy online).

No, ISPs and search engines don’t want to be gatekeepers for information, forced to censor at will based on whatever nuisance complaints a special interest group or governmental entity may make.