the following article thoroughly grossed me out. it digusts me that google has all the patronizing pretensions of ‘liberating repressive regimes’, and that people actually buy this shit:
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Google takes seriously its founding principle – “Don’t be evil” – even if outsiders are sceptical. The 2006 decision was informed, or at least justified, by a theoretical belief in the power of the web to shrug off efforts at state control. This was not just the Google view. Most media companies seeking access to the Chinese market have wrapped their business interests in a moral argument about information as a liberalising force. The idea was that even a limited taste of western-style media would create an appetite for openness that oppressive states would be unable to contain. Information technology was supposed to be the Trojan horse inside brutal regimes. The belief was that freedom was programmed into the digital age. Individual expression was meant to be unstoppable.
[...]
Property rights lead to human rights. So it is OK to invest in repressive countries because the act of investment is a kind of lobbying for freedom. But this idealistic theory has been disproved by the two biggest case studies: Russia and China. In both, the growth of capitalism and the penetration of new digital technologies have coincided with a consolidation of authoritarian government. Moscow and Beijing have proved that a newly rich, digitally equipped middle class will accept political repression as the price for economic security and social stability.
- the Guardian