URL: http://stallman.org/archives/2012-jul-oct.html#27_September_2012_%28Internet_censorship%29
Free Speech, the Internet, and a Very Big Lie.
The problem of censorship begins when a site that the public depends on for communication — in other words, an effectively public virtual space that is formally private — blocks access to any material from any country. If a state installs filters to block the material, the state is clearly committing censorship. When a company does the state's dirty work, that disguises the censorship as an editorial judgment.
Google says that it must comply with the censorship laws of the various countries where it has offices. That's true, but incomplete. For a time, Google complied with the censorship laws of China for this reason; but then it closed its office there and stopped complying. That was the right thing to do, but Google does not always do the right thing. When Google opens an office in a country that imposes censorship, it extends that country's censorship to YouTube.
