Professor Chander Publishes Op-ed on Google in SacBee, Comments for Wired

Professor Anupam Chander authored an op-ed in the Sacramento Bee and commented for Wired magazine on Google's sharp criticism of government-mandated censorship of its search engine service in China.

Google's decision, announced last week in the wake of a discovery that it had been the object of an attack by hackers believed to have been based in China, risks its ability to continue doing business in China, where the government required it to deny citizens access to certain webpages and information.  It has prompted discussion of the role internet-based companies may play in setting international standards for censorship and human rights.

In both articles, Professor Chander likened the role of Google to that of print publishers in earlier eras.  "If you look to history, you find that publishers often served as a voice for political dissidents," Professor Chander told Wired. "You can go back to Galileo and the Inquisition, when a Dutch publisher goes to Italy and smuggles out the manuscript." Professor Chander noted that the Dutch publisher then returned to Protestant Northern Europe to publish Galileo's last work. 

In his Bee op-ed, he wrote, "In the United States, we have long understood the importance of newspapers to free speech and political discussion. Today, new media enterprises such as Google and Facebook offer a platform for publishing dissident speech from around the world."

Professor Anupam Chander is a leading scholar in the law of globalization and digitization, and has written widely on international law, cyber law, and corporate law.

Sacramento Bee op-ed: New media must follow Google's lead