Due to a new development, you may be able to either thank Google for getting China to censor less information, or blame the company for starting World War III. The reason: the White House has sided with Google in the free speech and hacking conflict that cropped up this week.
According to John Letzing, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said today, "We support [Google’s] action . . . to no longer censor searches that happen using the [Google] platform . . . . [O]ur concern is with actions that threaten the universal rights of a free Internet."
That’s a rather bold statement. The first part might imply that companies still doing business on China’s terms do not have the White House’s approval, and from there, it’s a slippery slope to cries of "un-American!" and other unpleasant accusations. The part about threats to universal rights then almost brings to mind the idea of some sort of intervention.
Of course, governments have been known to declare much more dramatic things and do precisely nothing afterward, so don’t take this as WebProNews’s call to prepare for an armed international showdown.
It’s just very interesting that the U.S. government would weigh in on a company’s business decision at all, and then that it would do so in such a forceful manner.
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