More Google-China drama

More on the continuing saga of Google and China. On Tuesday, Google founder Sergey Brin appeared to express some regret about Google's self-censorship on its Chinese search engine. Then Wired magazine's blog reported yesterday that Google is the target of a U.S. federal lawsuit for rejecting an online advertisement for the website ChinaIsEvil.com. Activist Chris Langdon alleges that the company ...

More on the continuing saga of Google and China. On Tuesday, Google founder Sergey Brin appeared to express some regret about Google's self-censorship on its Chinese search engine. Then Wired magazine's blog reported yesterday that Google is the target of a U.S. federal lawsuit for rejecting an online advertisement for the website ChinaIsEvil.com. Activist Chris Langdon alleges that the company stonewalled him when he submitted an ad for his bare-bones site (which decries China's policies and claims that Google, AOL, Yahoo, and Microsoft are practicing censorship by refusing to let him advertise). In a nice twist, I was alerted to the Wired blog posting by a news alert in my Gmail account.

More on the continuing saga of Google and China. On Tuesday, Google founder Sergey Brin appeared to express some regret about Google's self-censorship on its Chinese search engine. Then Wired magazine's blog reported yesterday that Google is the target of a U.S. federal lawsuit for rejecting an online advertisement for the website ChinaIsEvil.com. Activist Chris Langdon alleges that the company stonewalled him when he submitted an ad for his bare-bones site (which decries China's policies and claims that Google, AOL, Yahoo, and Microsoft are practicing censorship by refusing to let him advertise). In a nice twist, I was alerted to the Wired blog posting by a news alert in my Gmail account.

It's a little surprising that these information technology companies haven't been more prepared for all the complications that come from doing business in China. I mean, they trade in information. In China. It's not soft drinks or hamburgers, folks.

Christine Y. Chen is a senior editor at Foreign Policy.

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