Blackmoor Vituperative

So much for the good feeling engendered by the company’s refusal to give search data to the U.S. Department of Justice. Google’s headed for a Congressional showdown because it chose to censor its new China portal.

Rep. Chris Smith (R - N.J.), chairman of the International Operations and Human Rights Subcommittee will convene hearings on the activities of U.S. Internet companies in China on February 13. Smith said in a press release announcing he intends to call representatives of Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft, among others, said “Many Chinese have suffered imprisonment and torture in the service of truth – and now Google is collaborating with their persecutors.”

Smith comes from the right wing of the Republican party, having first won office with Ronald Reagan in 1980. He has worked since then to curb abortion and spread religious and democratic freedoms. […]

But he does stand on his principles, voting againt both abortion and, unlike many conservatives, the death penalty as a consistent expression of his pro-life opinions. So this is a guy who knows a solid symbolic campaign when he sees one. Having fought to protect free expression and practice by Christians in China, it’s clear he sees the Google self-censorship case is a solid foundation for making a point that American companies should not sell out human rights for a profit.

(from ZDNet, Google will face Congressional hearings over China)

Does Google deserve to be criticized for making a deal with the devil in order to gain access to 100 million Internet-using Chinese people? Yes.

Does the U.S. Congress have the authority to interrogate American citizens? No.