Death of Internet

Google, succumbing to the pressure tactic of Chinese government, is an ominous portent for what the future holds for the free spirit of internet. The internet thrived because of its free spirit, because of the independence it allowed the users to publish their mind. And search engines were the means by which this information was made available to wider audience. Of course some people used internet for not so good purposes like the militants sending encrypted mails and images. That probably necessitated some amount of overt censorship of the freedom, where the activity was unqustionably wrong. (I beleive exploiting internet to spread the network of terror is undeniably unethical). But disallowing a certain section's voice to be suppressed because of the pressure from a hegemonic behemoth, certainly hints that the days of unbridled freedom of information over the internet are numbered. One section's propaganda is another section's truth. And I beleive marginalising the voice of a section because of its economic incapacity, is a sharp reversal from the philosophy of internet that we grew up with.

Google, which was a torch-bearer of the spirit of freedom, with its mega-assortment of free to use tools, is increasingly becoming a shrewd corporate entity, as its grip over the internet becomes tighter. As it increasingly is becoming indispensible on the web, its image of a maverick internet company, managed by a set of magnanimous nerds is sharp becoming obsolete. What is unfolding may not just yet be a sinister plot to colonialize the web, but its certainly disturbing. Once it fully grows into the Walled Box that it is modelling itself to be on the lines of Microsoft, may be some other phoenix will rise in the web sphere to give voice the economically unviable section of the mankind. But the question that still remains how long will the free spirit of such entities be intact before snowballing into the greenbacks of greed? How long is it before the capitalistic intentions of seemingly innocuous web-entities fatally jeopardises the spirit of freedom, with which the internet thrived?