B10[mg]

We all know that Google censors the content for our Chinese friends. A simple query for tiananmen square on different google servers shows you the difference. But what some of you may not know (I stumbled upon it only today) is that Google censors not just based on domain name (google.com vs google.cn) but also on language.

Let's look at the German domain, first without language settings:

Now just add &hl=zh-CN behind the URL and Tank Man has disappeared (mostly, the images now fall through the cracks of the google filters now and then).

The reason for this was a burst of ignorance and stupidity by one of our members of parliament Geert Wilders He's notorious for his ignorant proposals like calling the immigration of Muslims a "tsunami of Islamisation" and of course he wanted a ban on burqas.

But today he went completely berserk and deemed it necessary to propose a ban of the Qu'ran, just like we still have a ban on Hitler's "Mein Kampf". But he wanted to take it a step further. He wanted to make it illegal to even possess a copy of the Qu'ran. Yeah ... and the best part, his party is called "Party for Freedom". Freedom for white, christian males, that is (probably).

Not soon after, reports were filed with the police for insulting a section of the community. Let's see if that works.

I always find it very strange that a Party for Freedom wants to ban so many things. Banning books is like being Google in China. Do we really want that? I doubt it.