The latest example of the internet crackdown affecting technology giants is a broadside at Google. The New York Times reported Thursday that Chinese bloggers believe "that someone in Beijing manipulated Google's software to make it more likely to suggest a pornographic search term during a state television broadcast." The Times says Chinese bloggers allege "a concerted effort to stain Google's image."

This after the Chinese government earlier this month accused Google of linking to pornography and promoting other "lewd" content that violated national laws.

The Google incident comes at the same time PC giants are protesting a mandate by the Chinese government that they equip all of their PCs with "Green Dam Youth Escort" Web filtering software on their PCs by July 1. That is going to add millions of dollars in logistics and preloading costs on PC makers at a time when they are already under intense financial pressure.

Computer makers including Hewlett Packard, Dell, and Acer are all grappling with the cost and logistics issues raised by China's demand to preinstall the Green Dam software.

The US government is stepping in to try to get the Chinese government to back down on the web filtering requirement.

U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, sent a joint letter to China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Ministry of Commerce this week urging leaders to revoke the Green Dam mandate.

The letter points out that the Web filtering mandate could "be a serious barrier to trade" for U.S. businesses and raises "fundamental questions" regarding regulatory transparency.

The Chinese government says the Green Dam software would be used to shield children from viewing pornography and violent content on the Internet. Researchers have found that Green Dam software contains critical security flaws, however, and critics both inside and outside of China worry the software could be by the Chinese government to monitor the surfing behaviors of its users and potentially block user access to politically controversial Web sites.

It is unlikely that the US government will have any success getting the Chinese government to back down on the web filtering mandate. What's more, it looks like there are likely to be more moves by the Chinese government to censor Internet content by strong-arming technology giants. That's not good news for an industry that is being squeezed by the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression.