[revscat]

Western governments have a long history of shutting down dissenting opinion, infiltrating left-wing groups, and conducting various other undemocratic operations in order to further their own goals. And just yesterday the PM of Great Britain called for government controls over social networks. Google's motives here are questionable given their cozy relationship with US intelligence and law enforcement.

This is hardly "tinfoil hat territory". Rather it is simple history and current events.

[mc32]

Can you elaborate on the 'Western' qualifier, I think it's unwarranted? I imagine any big enough and sophisticated (organized) enough government would engage in some of this activity.

[revscat]

I included it because a large segment of Americans seem to discount, ignore, or refuse to accept the validity of such things. I agree with you. NPR, unfortunately, does not.

[mc32]

Ah, ok. I recall a conversation with a SEAsian refugee who mentioned something like neighborhood committees and such where neighbors were organized to actively spy on such things which could be regarded as anti-state/anti-party.

[sixtofour]

Sounds like East Germany.

[noduerme]

I've lived in Vietnam and can confirm this is still policy. All over the country, every area (say, 6-8 city blocks from what I could tell) has a "Block warden" who's in charge of making sure everyone's political views are in line within their sphere. Most of these guys drive mercedes-benzes now and their kids spend most of the day playing videogames and blasting bad music off oversized speakers from the middle of the block warden's compound -- which itself is usually a large modern house with very high walls. No one sees what goes on in there, but the music starts blasting off those speakers at 6:30 AM sharp, six days a week, and if you're Vietnamese your ass is out of bed and washing the street in front of your shop by 7.

Google is trying to establish an online version of this kind of total collective obedience. And this, right after they admit to the German gov't that they've shared European data collected off their cloud servers with the US intelligence services? Seriously? Screw them to hell.