Tragically we have a dried apricot ceding power to the highest bidder. There isn’t much for other countries to do directly unless they are paying for “sock puppet time” or getting in a pissing match with a clown that makes a juggalo look smart.
This is more about controlling (collateral) damage: in this case megacorps “kissing the ring” via stupid shit like Google is doing presently. Countries can fuck with corporations far easier than we can (guess who paid for sock puppet time…)
Google is clearly attempting to make themselves more “saleable” to the ruling party by dropping things like month names or renaming universally accepted names of global features. Right now their -baseline- is where we are at currently. A lawsuit does next to nothing. It’s an operating cost. A country threatening to blacklist their service will hit them cleanly in the only thing that matters: their shareholders. Our biggest corporations have time and again rolled over for this tactic. They may have elevated themselves to a godlike status within the states but they are vulnerable outside our shores.
Scared? The journalists shouldn’t be. They’ll never have to write about it.
Every major news organization is owned by a small handful of people playing for the same team. Internet exposure? Maybe for a few minutes before your site is delisted/deranked and/or taken down by a barrage of nonsense DCMA takedown notices that are effective immediately (with no evidence) but to reverse them you need to painstakingly disprove each: to both your provider and the claimant.
Time to accept that we’re juuuust at the tipping point of freedom of speech and expression. Slip a bit more and we’re sliding right into an identical situation as seen in China, North Korea, and Russia. Remind me… who does the head apricot idolize? Neat.