Google as a Government Agency

[IainH]

If you pay much attention to the debate about whether Google is guilty of censorship, here is an interesting challenge to the notion that Google is a private company:

Tell Me More About How Google Isn’t Part Of The Government And Can Therefore Censor Whoever It Wants?

"This is absurd on its surface, because Google is not separate from the government in any meaningful way. It has been financially intertwined with US intelligence agencies since its very inception when it received research grants from the CIA and NSA for mass surveillance, pours massive amounts of money into federal lobbying and DC think tanks, has a cozy relationship with the NSA and multiple defense contracts....

"There needs to be some sort of measure in place which protects the public from such manipulations. Either remove corporate power from government power or acknowledge that they are fully meshed and expand constitutional protections to the users of any media giant which has enmeshed itself in government power. Pretending corporate power and government power are separate when they are not while exploiting that inseparable symbiosis to silence political dissent is not acceptable."

At what point do we start to recognize interdependence -- the government depends on Google and vice versa -- as agency?

I can't say I'm surprised. My hometown* of Lenoir, NC several years ago as it's industrial base, furniture manufacturing, in particular "case goods", was being decimated by Asian competition started courting Google. At the time, Google was searching for a cheap place to locate it's newest data processing facility. Google promised lots of good paying jobs. Local politicians eagerly offered tax incentives, utilities and a business friendly environment. The state may have helped too but, I confess my recollections are kind of fuzzy. Bottom line is; Google got what they wanted then, shat on the locals by bringing in outsiders to fill the high paying jobs and hiring locally for the low paying menial tasks. Some residents were naively surprised by this, others, such as myself, were not.
* Lenoir is my birthplace, I've been adopted by my beloved's hometown of Blowing Rock NC. The holler is one half mile in a straight line, two miles by road south of BR and is a teeny community called Blackberry by the residents and Bailey Camp by the USGS. Gunfire is as common as it is in Detroit, the difference being our guns are legal and we shoot at targets and critters and not at people.