Is the internet censored in America?
 

Stupid question right?

The only reason I ask it is because I've travelled to other countries and I have access to completely different websites (found through google searches etc.). This includes websites offering things like illegal movie downloads which might be censored for a reason (also i know these have popped up a lot recently but this was a couple years ago). If China can censor their entire country from the internet why cant the US keep us from gaining access to certain information.

Any tech savy individuals know what the deal is here?

Good question. So far as I know, only illegal things (i.e. beastiality) are totally illegal online, but it's possible that some search engines will sort things differently or even omit certain things.

To the best of my knowledge, No.

But, A great many sites treat a visiter differnt depending on what Geospatial area their IP address block is found in.

Google for example know what country you are in and redirects you as needed. When sitting in a Paris McDonalds with WiFi recently, Typing www.google.com took me instead to www.google.fr.

It is entirely possible that using the IP address block to determine your country, a site feeds you different content.
However, that is the action of the site owner, not the government.

A web page is contained on a server owned by someone, and they have the power to display or not display content, including search results. To the best of my knowledge, no search engine has ever proffessed to being nuetral in the manner of not editing results.

If you really want to figure it out and do some testing set up a proxy in some country you dont think would be censored at all. that way all the search engines and stuff you try will think your there and not in the US.

The US government does not censor internet usage. Some things are illegal to view/use in the US but you can still get there. Some ISP's do filter and censoring. Some sites choose to choose to react differently based on the locality of the IP as mentioned though.

The "internet" cannot be censored.

Websites can be. In fact, hosting companies in the U.S. routinely pull websites that are considered "offensive."

Also, Google filters search terms for certain things which are illegal in the U.S. I don't know if pirated movies are among those things.