Google is under heat for conforming to Chinese law by limiting the scope of searches delivered by the ‘google.cn’ version of its search engine.
It seems to me that this isn’t about censorship or freedom. The core issue is whether nations have sovereignty over their domestic communications networks and services. The FCC has rules about what can be carried over the US airwaves (just ask the radio networks that carried Howard Stern or look at the results of Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction).
Here in Canada, the CRTC censors simulcast US commercials, a problem that is especially troubling during the Super Bowl broadcasts, denying Canadians access to the Bud Bowl and Go Daddy. Instead we are served up the Canadian Tire guy.
However, in its Mobile TV Decision, the CRTC expresses the view that content delivered over ‘the Internet’ is free of its regulation. Note this does not apply to networks just using IP, but solely to those using the big cloud, capital ‘I’ Internet.
It is interesting that even the Telecom Policy Review panel, with all of its free market language, discusses limits on illegal content. Hank Intven, one of the TPR panel members, will moderate the session looking at Illegal Content at The Canadian Telecom Summit in June.