The Golden Shield is a project run by China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS), initiated in 1998. Theoretically it was designed to improve information systems for the police. Employing 30,000, it serves as a gigantic “Big Brother” system, filtering Internet content so as to keep the nation safe from evil. The ultimate aim, say some, is to create an all-encompassing online database and systems network for the security of the nation.The project is condemned by Amnesty International and the group Human Rights Watch. Google, the search engine giant, has been criticized for working with the MPS. From my limited understanding of what I read, the Golden Shield blocks certain Internet content from the people within the country. That is, it censors content by making it unavailable in China.
This raises certain questions. Should the State decide what is and is not acceptable for its people? And should Google, the company, work hand in hand with those censors? I guess if Google wants to make money in China, they have to play turkey.
Google has an informal motto to not be evil. Yahoo has a poster mocking this motto with a Google logo and the statement, “Sometimes Evil?”
But Yahoo has not been immune from controversy with regard to China, having turned over info that led to Chinese dissident Shi Tao being sentenced to ten years in prison.
Microsoft, in 2005, cooperated with Chinese censors by helping remove words like “democracy” and “freedom” from Chinese bloggers’ blogsites.
The search engine giants have some tough issues to work out with regards to operating inside countries that censor freedom of speech for their people. How far should these countries go with regard to helping the various “Big Brother” systems of the world?
And how many Internet police do we have in our own country? How much stuff is going on here that we don’t even know about because it has been censored?
Time to take a deep breath. Best not to think to hard on that one. Let’s just root for our American swimmers. They're sure bringing home a lot of gold.
