Internet Wall Of Shame Member Google Lobbies for ‘Net Neutrality’

I think the word I’m looking for is “chutzpah.”

Eli Milchman at Wired.com covers the latest assessment of China’s Internet freedom situation by Reporters Without Borders (RWB):

China Tightens Grip on Web

The French organization Reporters Without Borders condemned the Chinese government Tuesday for its increasing censorship of the internet.

RWB claims that the Chinese government has expanded its efforts to block Chinese citizens from accessing Google, Google News and Google Mail, and that software programs like Dynapass, Freegate and Ultrasurf, which were designed to allow users to bypass China’s censorship methods, have been “neutralized.”

“It was only to be expected that Google.com would be gradually sidelined after the censored version was launched in January,” RWB said in its statement. “Google has just definitively joined the club of western companies that comply with online censorship in China. It is deplorable that Chinese internet users are forced to wage a technological war against censorship in order to access banned content.”

Meanwhile, the co-conspirator in Chinese censorship, BizzyBlog Internet Wall of Shame member Google, is playing the regret card — sort of. Hmmm ….. I wonder why?

Google founder lobbies for net neutrality

Google Inc. co-founder and President Sergey Brin met with U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday to press for legislation that would prevent Internet access providers from charging Web sites more for faster content delivery.

“The only way you can have a fast lane that is useful — that people will pay a premium for — is if there are slow lanes,” Brin told reporters after meeting with Republican John McCain, a member of the Senate committee that oversees telecommunications issues.

….. The seven-year-old company has found itself at the center of several political storms in recent months. It successfully battled the Justice Department to avoid handing over search records and absorbed severe congressional criticism over its business practices in China.

“Our reputation certainly suffered” from reports that Google’s Chinese site — www.google.cn — did not show search results on topics critical of the Chinese government, he said.

But he said only 1 percent of Chinese users use google.cn, while the majority uses the unfiltered www.google.com.

“We are not actually censoring in China,” he added.

I think that those of us who have watched Google help the Chinese government build a better police state, cull out US conservative sites from its Google News service for so-called “hate speech” (while leaving some hard-left and socialist sites that would make your skin crawl alone), and broadcast material on its own Net-based service that is as biased or worse than that seen on the Big Three TV networks, can be forgiven for doubting Mr. Brin’s sincerity or ideological purity on the “net neutrality” issue.

Anyway, based on what RWB noted in the second paragraph of the first excerpt, the last two paragraphs of the Mr. Brin’s statement indicates that he either isn’t even in the neighborhood of leveling with us, or doesn’t understand how his company’s own services are being restricted by his customer. Or is he really parsing around with us, because Google technically isn’t doing the censoring, and the Chinese government is?

Very, unimpressive. I remain utterly unconvinced that what is good for Google is good for Internet users.
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UPDATE: Later reports are indicating more remorse being expressed by Brin. Nice, but I don’t find it persuasive.

UPDATE 2: NixGuy e-mailed a link to this piece from the UK Times Online with a couple of interesting points:

However, it is questionable whether Google could afford to turn its back on China’s explosive economy.

Yesterday, Times Online revealed how the company has struggled to compete in businesses outside its core search service. Failures to break into fields such as news and financial information could up the pressure on Google to extend the reach of its search tool – already the world’s most popular – into new territories.

The previous report the Times refers to only discusses Google’s performance in non-search areas in the UK, but still is startling:

According to a half-year report by web analysts at Hitwise, seen exclusively by Times Online, Google trails arch-rivals Yahoo and Microsoft by massive margins in several key online areas in the UK.

….. Google Finance, Google’s business information service, has fared particularly badly, according to Hitwise. In a market led by Yahoo, which has an 8.3 per cent share in Britain, Google languishes in 201st position, with just 0.4 per cent.

….. despite the high-profile launch of Google’s Gmail e-mail service in April 2004, it still only has 2.2 per cent of the market in the UK. Microsoft’s Hotmail service leads with 52.4 per cent, while Yahoo has around 24 per cent.

….. In news services, Google also trails, with its Google News site taking only 0.4 per cent – leaving it at number 28 in the rankings. In the UK, the BBC leads the field, with a 16 per cent share.

Even Google’s much-admired Google Earth service, which offers aerial photographs, accounts for only 4 per cent of the “Travel – Maps” sector tracked by Hitwise.

So, maybe Google’s “net neutrality” advocacy is a gambit to ensure that its core search engine business stays undisturbed.

UPDATE 3, June 8: Mr. Brin now has to explain this — RWB says that Google.com “was blocked nationwide on 31 May.”

UPDATE 4, June 8: The Empire strikes back — “China welcomes foreign Internet companies working in China, but they must respect and abide by the country’s laws, including those on expression, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Thursday.”