But most of the mainstream “tech media” seems more interested in reviewing Google’s latest smartphone than the company’s candid acknowledgment that the masters of the digital universe have largely abandoned the internet’s founding principles of freedom and openness.
A more likely explanation for the media turning a blind eye to the presentation is that they basically agree with it, and find nothing uncontroversial about its declaration that tech companies have abandoned the “American tradition” of free speech in favor of the “European tradition” of protecting everyone’s feelings.
Almost all of us would agree that some restrictions on free speech are necessary. But few of us would agree on what those restrictions should be. Being a good censor — or at least, a more consistent censor — is within Google’s grasp. But being a politically neutral one is probably impossible.
What is not up for debate is that Google is ripping away our privacy every day, taking the most intimate pieces of our lives and selling them in buckets of parts – like pieces of cow flesh in a Whole Foods display case.
Google wants to be proud of their legacy, and tricking people into clicking ads and selling our profiles to advertisers is an awesome business – but a horrible legacy for Larry and Sergey.
It's your device, so you can do whatever you want with it. When you download something onto your device, it is now yours to remix and play with in any way you want – provided you don't republish it and make money from it. (Fair use is the exception here.) According to this basic tenet, if I buy the New York Times in print, clip out all the ads and then tape it back together at home, well, that's my right.