A FEW months ago, Internet users in China discovered they could no longer access the Google search engine. All requests to view the Web page were returned “Error 403 – Forbidden”. A technical glitch? Hell, no. The block was deliberate, the latest of many moves by Chinese authorities to keep their citizens away from politically sensitive information on the Internet.
Access to Google has apparently been reinstated in China, but the reality of a dictatorship shutting down such a powerful international search engine jolted Net users around the globe out of their collective slumber over censorship.
China isn’t the only offender.…
