According to The New York Times, the Big 3 search engine companies are spearheading a coalition of companies and human rights organizations who aim to introduce a “code ” for free speech on the Internet. Reportedly, the goal is to “better protect free speech and privacy against government intrustion.”

The code is an effort of “The Global Network Initiative”, however the past actions of many members of the Global Network has some folks looking at the code skeptically. For instance: the Big 3 have been roundly criticized for cooperating with Chinese government censorship. Yahoo in particular has been criticized for its involvement in helping Chinese authorities identify Shi Tao, who had sent a brief of a Chinese government document calling for Press censorship to his private Yahoo email account, and is now serving a 10 year prison sentence as a result of the sent email.

It is little wonder that critics like Morton Sklar of the World Organization for Human Rights USA are calling the code “little more than a broad statement of support for a general principle without any concrete backup mechanism to ensure that the guidelines will be followed.”

Of course there are two sides to every coin and many would say that any effort, no matter how ineffective, to ensure privacy and free speech on the Internet should be applauded.

You will be able to make a call for “heads or tails” soon as the code is scheduled to be published tomorrow, Wednesday the 29th of October.