Shielding Government from the effects of Free Speech

Being reported this am:

Google, Microsoft and Yahoo and a group of human rights and public interest organizations plan to introduce Wednesday a global code of conduct that they say will better protect online free speech and privacy against government intrusion.
The principles are the starting point for a new effort, called the Global Network Initiative, which commits the companies to “avoid or minimize the impact of government restrictions on freedom of expression,” according to a final draft of documents obtained by The New York Times.

er… wait a minute. Wasn’t the American Government the worldwide leader in promoting free speech? Now its an initiative by the worlds largest technology corporations? Not that thats a bad thing (cough, lack of oversight, cough), but really, what happened to the Government and Constitution spearheading this? Someone mustve really f*d up somewhere. And Global Network Initiative just sounds so… technocratic. Hey, how about some more user friendly words, all you global network initiative user interface designers?