While the U.S. government points fingers at the major Internet companies for bowing to China's demands for censorship, the same Internet outfits are pointing fingers back at the U.S. government. In a
prepared statement, Google's senior policy counsel Andrew McLaughlin asked the U.S. government to up the ante by extending its definition of free trade to include the free flow of information. "We
have asked the United States government to treat censorship as a barrier to trade," McLaughlin said, adding that the company will continue to do business with China in a manner that balances its
"commitments to satisfy the interests of users, expand access to information, and respond to local conditions." Google is basically saying that transparency in its dealings with China is the best it
can do; the rest is up to the U.S. government. In a joint statement, Microsoft and Yahoo also asked for government intervention in advising them how to proceed with the censorship questions. House
committee members at the Congressional caucus, meanwhile, accused the major Internet companies of restricting the free flow of information by bowing to China's requests.
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