One of the latest in a long line of Chinese restrictions on Internet-related activity that has received a large amount of media coverage is the creation of its very own specialised Google search engine. To obey with China’s censorship laws Google has created a site that purges any search results of any websites disapproved by the Chinese authority. Examples include sites promoting Falun Gong, free speech in China and any mention of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Google’s conduct in China did not go well with the people of the United States, their stocks fell and protestors waved placards outside their headquarters “comparing them to Nazi collaborators”. Many protestors such as Julian Pain, spokesman for Reporters without Borders, said that Google’s decision to “collaborate” with the Chinese government was a “real shame”. When the company went public two years ago, the co-founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page filed submissions with the Securities and Exchange Commission declaring that they are "a company that is trustworthy and interested in the public good". However, most people see their decision as based solely on financial considerations as the number of Internet users in China currently stands at 100 million and is expected to rise to 187 million in two years time.

The main point to consider about Google’s conduct with China is how people all over the world reacted when it came to cyberspace freedom. We have exposed the diverse methods of observing Internet transactions but if other governments decide to follow in China’s footsteps and proactively intervene with the industry they will need to present strong arguments for its requirement.

Cybercrime is one of the fastest-growing criminal activities on the planet. It covers a huge range of illegal activity including financial scams, computer hacking (which is now considered as terrorism), child pornographic material, virus attacks, and creation of websites that promote racial hatred. “Given the extent to which computers have become a part of modern life, it was inevitable that some people would see the wired world as an opportunity to make money or cause mischief”, said by Home Secretary Jack Straw, is evidentially true as the German foreign minister Joschka Fischer recently put the global figure of illegal cybercrimes at more than $40bn a year.

Spam is destroying the Internet and the benefits of systems such as email and needs to be stopped by legal intervention otherwise the Internet will collapse. Spam accounts for approximately 50 percent of all email and is growing. Many regimes have already legislated to ban Spam and it does not seem unreasonable to envisage in this legislation. However, the best means of intervention in the fight against the Spam plague would be “Self-regulation", as it has worked in many industries, particularly the financial world, and would only require computer owners to take reasonable precautions against infection and illicit use of their machines to distribute Spam, by simply updating anti-virus and filtering software.