Google Fighting Global Internet Censorship

The spread of web censorship around the globe has become so bad that Google has decided to try to fight it. (See http://oplinreport.blogspot.com/2007/03/web-censorship-spreading-globally.html)

Google's new approach is to ask U.S. trade officials to treat Internet restrictions as international trade barriers. Google argues that the censorship harms their advertiser-based business model, and wants to convince the U.S. government that web censorship is an economic problem as well as a political problem. Andrew McLaughlin, Google's director of public policy and government affairs, has met with officials from the U.S. Trade Representative's office several times this year to discuss the issue.