Why Is Congress Getting Involved Over The Chinese Search Engine Censorship Story

While we're disappointed that Google has agreed to create a censored version for China, it's hard to see why the US government should be getting involved -- but they are. As Sergey Brin speaks out (in a fair amount of detail) to defend the decision, a Congressman has called for hearings where Google, Yahoo and Microsoft will all be asked to speak. Of course, it's a bit silly that this is happening now, after Google decided to do this. Yahoo and Microsoft have done the same thing for a while now. Of course, it's even more ironic, given that the very same US government is fighting Google to put in place a law that has been thrown out for violating First Amendment rights (in other words, for the possibility of censorship). While it is a disappointing move by Google, it's hard to see why the US government should be involved, other than for grandstanding on a hot topic.