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Google has officially sold out to the forces of government censorship. They have decided that they will tailor the output of their Chinese-language search interface to suit the whims of the Chinese government

Care to see the result? Search for Tiananmen Square on google.com. Then compare the results with the same search on google.cn.

It seems to me that the most effective way to protest this shameless caving in would be to spread the forbidden information far and wide. Let Google spend as much time as possible cleaning it out, and make sure the censored Google search results are as useless as possible. Ideally, even innocent searches like “pictures of kittens” should result in a notice saying that results were censored.

With that in mind:

In 1989, the government of the People’s Republic of China violently suppressed a peaceful protest by students in Tiananmen Square. At least 400 protesters were massacred according to the CIA; other estimates are higher.

Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a peaceful non-violent religious movement. Its teachings include meditation, breathing exercises, and other elements borrowed from Buddhism and Taoism.

With a little editing, they’ll even fit in .signatures.

Google starts being publically traded in August 2004, completely abandons its supposed corporate ethics in January 2005. That’s the fastest and most complete sellout the USA has seen since Bill Clinton was first elected.

Google’s Sergei Brin rationalized:

We ultimately made a difficult decision, but we felt that by participating there, and making our services more available, even if not to the 100 percent that we ideally would like, that it will be better for Chinese Web users, because ultimately they would get more information, though not quite all of it.

I’m old enough to remember the exact same arguments being made against boycotting South Africa over apartheid. They were wrong then and they’re wrong now.

[Added 2006-02-16] In a telling piece of testimony, Google’s VP of communications says:

The requirements of doing business in China include self-censorship – something that runs counter to Google’s most basic values and commitments as a company.

There you have it. They admit they’re selling out their basic values.

President Bill Clinton’s administration knew Rwanda was being engulfed by genocide in April 1994 but buried the information to justify its inaction, according to classified documents made available for the first time.

Senior officials privately used the word genocide within 16 days of the start of the killings, but chose not to do so publicly because the president had already decided not to intervene.

Intelligence reports obtained using the US Freedom of Information Act show the cabinet and almost certainly the president had been told of a planned “final solution to eliminate all Tutsis” before the slaughter reached its peak.

It took Hutu death squads three months from April 6 to murder an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus and at each stage accurate, detailed reports were reaching Washington’s top policymakers.

—Guardian

New York Times:

Democrats and civil rights advocates condemned the Justice Department today for barring a gay pride event planned by department employees, and called on Attorney General John Ashcroft to reverse the decision. […]

A group of several hundred gay and lesbian Justice Department employees, called DOJ Pride, had budgeted $600 to hold an awards ceremony on June 18 at the department’s Great Hall to celebrate Gay Pride Month. The group has held similar events at the department each of the last six years, members said, and Mr. Ashcroft’s top deputy spoke at last year’s event.

But Justice Department officials have told the group that it cannot hold the ceremony at the department this year because of a new policy prohibiting events not recognized by White House proclamation.

Mr. Bush has issued hundreds of presidential proclamations, recognizing events like National African American History Month, National Prayer Day and Leif Erikson Day.

But unlike President Bill Clinton, Mr. Bush has not recognized Gay Pride Month.

Amount to be spent investigating 9/11: $3m.

Amount spent investigating legalized gambling in 1996: $5m.

Amount spent investigating what Bill Clinton did with his penis: $40m+