"Are you ashamed of yourself?" (#86; Topic B)

Today, representatives from Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, three internet search services, testified before a House subcommitte, on their practices of modifying services when operating in China (#43, #52). Also testifying was Cisco Systems, which sold network-equipment to China, allowing the authorities to monitor and/or filter incoming messages. Hearing that Cisco sold the same equipment to everyone around the world, a Congressman asked: "Are you ashamed of yourself?" This caught the Cisco representative by surprise; regaining his composure, he said, defiantly: "No, I am not ashamed." Then, with some hesitation, he feebly added: "I am not proud of it either." To me, this hearing was rather ironic. To Google et al, their crime was providing modified services to China; to Cisco, the crime was the reverse -- selling unmodified products to China. As to filtering information, the Chinese government said that "many of our practices we got from studying the U.S. experience" (Wall Street Journal, 2/15/06). Indeed, a letter to the editor in today's Washington Post said: "France has taken Internet companies to court to block the sale of Nazi paraphernalia online and the hosting of racist Web sites." As to equipment, the Chinese government had said that it could develp similar monitoring capability in short order. A thought occurred to me: if I type "President George W Bush Jack Abramoff photo" for a Google search, would I get photographs of these two distinguished gentlemen together or would I draw a blank? I saw one such photo, rather fuzzy, in a recent issue of Time. To satisfy the public's thirst for knowledge, shouldn't the White House provide better-focused photographs on its own volition?
Posted at 8:39 pm, Wednesday, February 15, 2006