Nasty Little Man

Google: The E-Freedom Fighter

People who are paying attention know this by now, but Google is fighting a subpoena for records on searches done in June and July of 2005.

The NSA 3-way calling scandal enlightened us to the Bush adminstration's disregard for the use of search warrants, not to mention the 4th amendment, so it's no surprise that now they're searching phrases rather than people. And, of course, searching that phrase could sweep up millions of people, potentially.

Yahoo, AOL, and Microsoft all complied with the same request. This comes on the heels of the reports that both Yahoo and Microsoft have cooperated with Chinese authorities in cracking down on dissidents. Yahoo's release of e-mails helped put a man in jail.
Business, and repression, as usual

The Internet may be new, but not the issue of whether an American corporation should do business with bad people. Many an American fortune was based on the slave trade or exploitation of the Indians or some such atrocity. According to allegations in a recent book, IBM did business with Nazi Germany and, more recently, a good number of U.S. corporations helped the old apartheid regime in South Africa with its security concerns. Capitalism has always been amoral, eschewing moral considerations for the only one that counts: Will the check clear?

The use of Chinese labor by U.S. companies has long been a concern of many. In those situations, companies are taking advantage of Chinese citizens by paying them a pittance, but that pales in comparison to helping put a citizen in jail for researching or expressing views the PRC doesn't like.

Cheers to Google. And jeers to Yahoo and Microsoft.

posted by Kinder Gentler Little Man @ 9:10 PM