Googling the Censors

[Commentary] In most repressive countries, government censors like to toil in the shadows, maintaining a cover of deniability as they block citizens' access to information. It is gratifying to see that the Internet and Google are making their job tougher. Four months ago, Google unveiled a tool that allows users to monitor the requests received from governments to take down material or report data on the users of their search engine and other services. This month, it released another tool that will expose less overt attempts by governments to curtail its various services, including YouTube and Gmail. Once researchers start poring through the data, they will be able to track more precisely governments' efforts to clamp down on information. Google officials say this could even deter censorship, perhaps by embarrassing authorities into changing their ways. That may be too optimistic. Even exposing where censorship is most rampant should be a victory for freedom of expression.