Sergey Brin defends Google China censorship

If you weren’t at the cricket or the tennis or having an Australia Day barbecue yesterday then you might’ve noticed something interesting on every TV news broadcast in the country: a mini-furore about Google’s decision to cede to the Chinese Government’s “restricted information” internet censorship rules. In case you missed it, Google has decided to no longer show uncensored results to Chinese users of Google.cn. Instead, Google now only shows links to Chinese Government “approved” websites - ie, those websites with information and opinions uncritical of the Chinese Government regime.

Human rights activists claimed in the news that Google’s “Don’t do evil” mantra had been compromised, and bloggers around the world went on the attack on Google for “giving in” to the Chinese Government demands. I read this interview with Sergey Brin where he explains why Google took the decision for the new Google.cn search results.