In Episode 28 [1] of the CounterVortex podcast [2], Bill Weinberg notes with trepidation Google’s plans to develop a censored search engine for China [3], and thereby be allowed back through the Great Firewall [4] to access the world's largest market. But the next and more sinister step is imposing China's draconian standards for control of information [5] on all Internet users, worldwide. Harbingers of this are already seen in Facebook's censorship of the Tibetan struggle [6], and of the Kurdish struggle in Turkey [7], as well as initiatives to suppress footage of Israeli war crimes [8]. While protesting these moves is imperative, the potential for such abuses in inherent to the technology—and this, ultimately, is a deeper and more complex problem that also urgently demands a critique.
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Photo: Students for a Free Tibet [11]
