In War Against the Internet, China Is Just a Skirmish

No matter what happens in the fight between Google and Beijing's leaders, one thing seems clear: the company is not going to be able to turn the clock back to 2006. That year, Google itself helped to fracture the Internet by creating Google.cn.

China is not the only country where Google is bumping up against political or cultural opposition to the laissez-faire practices that Internet companies prefer. Different cultural norms are only one barrier to a global Internet. Commerce is another. As the Internet has evolved from a noncommercial communications tool to a hypercommercial media outlet, it has taken on characteristics of the platforms it now rivals or surpasses. Media companies and governments seem to be increasingly united in the belief that curbing some freedoms is necessary to foster the development of legitimate business on the Internet. But a single global approach to that is unlikely.