A lot of people here have been commenting that it is well within Google's rights to remove any images it deems to be offensive and that we as the people have to

A lot of people here have been commenting that it is well within Google's rights to remove any images it deems to be offensive and that we as the people have to live with it. If you don't like it, tough, switch services or make your own, don't complain, live with it. I COULD NOT DISAGREE WITH THIS MORE!!! This opinion neglects to mention the fact that we as consumers have the right to expect behavior along certain guidelines for companies (i.e. battery hens are legal, but a lot of people are now expecting companies to provide alternatives and switch away), and this expectation is rooted in the fact that Google is incredibly influential in a number of circles. While we are currently discussing SOPA, if Google says it can censor content at will, then what does that say to the US Government. As much as we say that we should switch to another service, if large corporations continue to do the wrong thing then it becomes much harder for small companies to do the right thing and it becomes acceptable for more people to do the wrong thing. It is unacceptable that we should allow Google to screw over users because they can, PARTICULARLY because they are representing the standards of the internet to governments globally. The second major point is that it is not simply a matter of switching to another service or making your own. Particularly when networking socially, you need a large user base or the service is essentially worthless. If you have a blog, you advertise your posts on your Facebook and Google+. Should Google then remove posted links to what it deems to be offensive content too? What's the point of writing a blog post if you can't advertise it to your readers? In an ideal world, if there is a better service, people will switch to it, but experience tells us this isn't the case. Consider diaspora, which promised us distributed free social networking, and yet the service languishes because people do not want to go to the effort. To start up a social network needs more than just a better product, and even a better product needs more than just a few weekends. Google+ was supposed to save us from Facebook, yet it seems we are getting more of the same....