Anne Applebaum has a column in today's WaPo which details examples of how unsavory foreign elements have used fear to erode our free speech.
Example #1: Jytte Klausen appears to have compelling proof that the hooey over a Danish newspaper printing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad may have been manipulated by radical Danish imams. However, Yale University Press reluctantly declined to reprint the images due to fears of inciting violence.
Example #2: GQ's Scott Anderson wrote an article that raises questions about whether the Russian government was behind the 2000 Moscow bombings. However, it's not in GQ's Russian edition--or anywhere to be found on GQ's Web site. According to NPR, owner Conde Nast was afraid of official harassment in Russia.
Example #3: Google's agreement to censor its Chinese site in return for being allowed to operate there at all.
Applebaum points out that these unsavory elements now have effective veto power over some expressions of free speech from American companies--and the long-term consequences aren't pretty.
In fact, each time an American company caves to illiberal pressure, the atmosphere is worse for everyone else. Each alteration made in the name of placating an illiberal group or government makes that group or government stronger. What seems a small lapse of integrity now might well loom larger in the future. All of these companies are making it much harder for everyone else to continue speaking and publishing freely around the world.
The only instance that may seem on paper to be even remotely justifiable in my mind is Yale's decision regarding Klausen's book. But Applebaum points out that Klausen has proof radical imams showed sexually explicit images of Muhammad alongside the original images--which Muslim scholars found to be inoffensive.
Applebaum quite rightly points out that such caving by American companies ultimately makes us less safe--and in some cases, only opens the door to more censorship.