In 2010, after four years of offering Chinese users a heavily censored version of its search engine, Google decided it would no longer block search results at the request of the Chinese state. “Our objection is to those forces of totalitarianism,” Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founder, told The New York Times at the time, adding that he hoped that Google’s stance would apply pressure toward “progress and a more open Internet in China.” Today, the internet in China is more closed than ever.
Archives for August 2018
Taibbi: Beware the Slippery Slope of Facebook Censorship
August 10, 2018
The social network is too big and broken to properly function, and these “fixes” will only create more problems
Inside Google’s Effort to Develop a Censored Search Engine in China
August 10, 2018
Google analyzed search terms entered into a Beijing-based website to help develop blacklists for a censored search engine it has been planning to launch in China, according to confidential documents seen by The Intercept.
The Government’s Argument that Reality Winner Harmed National Security Doesn’t Hold Up. Here’s Why.
Whistleblower Reality Winner was officially sentenced to 63 months in prison on Thursday, after a federal judge rubber-stamped a plea deal already agreed to by the prosecution and Winner’s lawyers. As the prosecution acknowledged, it is the longest sentence for a journalist’s source in federal court history.