JINSA Report #548 Mohammed Cartoons, Google and Yahoo

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February 10, 2006

JINSA Report #548

Mohammed Cartoons, Google and Yahoo

Probably everything has been said that ought to be said about the Danish
cartoons of Mohammed and the inspiring Muslim response. Americans,
particularly the media, have generally taken the self-satisfied line
that free speech is who we are and what we are about - "If you don't
like it, lump it," "Sticks and stones" and all that.

Not quite. A secondary American position has been the need for "cultural
sensitivity" and "respect" for religion and culture, which leaves
enormous wiggle room in the concept. Google and Yahoo, two of America's
biggest icons of the free exchange of speech and information, wiggled
right through.

According to Reuters (1/26) "Web search leader Google said on Tuesday it
was introducing a new service for China that seeks to avoid a
confrontation with the government by restricting access to services to
which users contribute such as email, chat rooms and blogs. The new
Chinese service... will offer a censored version of Google's popular
search system that could restrict access to thousands of terms and
websites."

Google's official statement said, "products - such as Gmail and Blogger
- will be introduced only when we are comfortable that we can do so in a
way that strikes a proper balance among our commitments to satisfy
users' interests, expand access to information, and respond to local
conditions." The Chinese government is not "comfortable" with the
mention of democracy, Tibet and Falun Gong. The Iranian government, we
think, is not "comfortable" with the mention of Israel, liberty and
women's rights. The Nazis weren't "comfortable" with the mention of Jews
and homosexuality. At what point does the lack of comfort of a
dictatorial regime take precedence over the right of the people to a
free exchange of ideas that may not be comfortable?

Now we're back to the Danish cartoons. But it gets worse.

Reuters (2/9) "Yahoo Inc. provided evidence to Chinese authorities that
led to the imprisonment of an Internet writer, lawyers and activists
said on Thursday, the second such case involving the U.S. Internet
giant... Yahoo had co-operated with Chinese police in a case that led to
the 2003 arrest of Li Zhi, who was charged with subverting state power
and sentenced to eight years in prison after trying to join the
dissident China Democracy Party... Yahoo gave public security agents
details of Li's registration as a Yahoo user, Liu said in an article
posted on U.S.-based Chinese-language news portal Boxun, citing a
defense statement from Li's lawyers."

So, where Google is only censoring information on behalf of the
dictators, Yahoo is policing the sites and turning the dissidents in!
Interestingly, Google is resisting efforts by the U.S. Justice
Department to get information about commonly used sex search terms -
hoping thereby to enforce existing online pornography laws. Yahoo, on
the other hand, complied with a similar government subpoena, but "did
not provide any personally identifiable information." No, they only
provide that to the Chinese government.

Yahoo and Google are not arms of the U.S. government, and the government
should not try to make them provide full, private service in China or
protect Chinese dissidents. But in the marketplace of ideas, free
Americans should make known their belief in the importance of free
speech and privacy.

To view this JINSA Report online click on the link below.
http://www.jinsa.org/JINSAReports/3311

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