| Home > Community thoughts > An Open Letter to Sergey, Larry and Eric: Don't allow my information to be censored. Let it be viewable by anyone in China who finds it using Google |
| An Open Letter to Sergey, Larry and Eric: Don't allow my information to be censored. Let it be viewable by anyone in China who finds it using Google | | Date Created: 31 Jan, 2006, 11:54 AM |
 Dear Larry, Sergey and Eric,
Lately I noticed you've had some interesting things to say about your efforts to bring the Google way of life to China. Your company's credo has been "Don't be evil" and if you look at my post below (here, click on this to get you there) you'll see I wrote about fairytale stories of good and evil with respect to technology companies.
Now I might be wrong but it seems to me you might be changing your tune to something more like "Don't be too evil" or "There's a time and place to be evil" or "Sometimes, evil is merely a means to an end" or "It's OK to be Evil but only in Context".
Whatever the case, you have built your company on the efforts of millions. No, not your employees, but the thoughts, beliefs, writings, and publications of others who have created and responded to websites and blogs.
On their backs, you have made your billions with your clever placing of "just for you"-style advertisements. I know because I've continued to use these ads too to pay for my .Mac account and I have received one cheque from you so far. Many thanks.
But now I have a moral dilemma just as you do. I am not a hypocrite though because knowingly or unknowingly, as a Westerner in an affluent country, I have little doubt I have purchased goods made in China.
I'm not declaring a boycott on Chinese-made goods and I don't know that I am asking you to withdraw from China.
But I am asking you, with respect to the several blogs that I maintain, not to censor them, but to allow my content to be freely available to all who find my sites using Google. Including those living in China.
I give away my knowledge, ideas and efforts via my websites, especially my Flightwise Fear of Flying website.
(Oh, by the way, that website has no AdSense presence because the products AdSense would download are not ones I wish to be associated with in the main. Instead, I have Amazon ads there for books I own and recommend).
Please don't allow it to be censored. I know what this feels like. Even on a US-based fear of flying support group I occasionally write to, its resident software-based auto-censor (nicknamed "Otto", a peculiarly US term given to the autopilot) offers up **** Cheney, or even ****pit - you know, the place where the pilots work. So I don't want to see that kind of software nonsense transfer from the US to China.
So he's the situation. I want you guys to do your best to see that my information and knowledge base, which took many years to accumulate, and for which I get well rewarded in independent practice, reaches whoever wants to read or hear it (yeah, I'm doing podcasts too. Who isn't?).
Some people actually feel quite liberated from their anxieties when they put the information from my sites into practice. (Will liberated appear as lib******?)
And it might mean a clash of cultures, or the thought that someone might actually want to fly out of China but needs some extra help along the way. It's not for me to say they can't fly, and or they mustn't read my blog, and I dare say, it's not your place either. Perhaps I shouldn't pass comment on the airline safety issues in China? Would that get my entire blog censored?
Is it a reasonable request to allow my information to flow freely, and allow individuals to decide for themselves whether it has value?
Best wishes
Les |
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