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Google Enumerates Government Requests
D H NG writes "In the aftermath of Google's exit from mainland China, it had sought to be more open about what it censors. Google has launched a new tool to track the number of government requests targeted at Google and YouTube. These include both requests for data and requests to take down data. A quick look at the tool shows that Brazil is the top country in both categories (largely because Orkut is popular there), and information for China cannot be disclosed because 'Chinese officials consider censorship demands as state secrets.' As part of its four-part plan, Google hopes to change the behavior of repressive governments, establish guiding principles for dealing with issues of free expression, build support online to protest repression, and better provide resources and support for developing technology designed to combat and circumvent Internet censorship."
"I guess we can't have a completely free internet (Google self censors);
You're free to post anything you want on your site, within the laws of your country. Move to the right country and you're totally free to post anything.
Google is also free to -not- post things to their site that they don't want to.
Sounds like it's 'completely free' to me.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
What they DON'T show -- and I've sent feedback asking for -- is how many of these are legal demands, such as warrants or court orders, versus informal requests.
It looks to me like all the ones that are court orders have "court order" in parenthesis after the listing. So for Canada (as an example) there were 16 removal requests, two of which were court ordered.
Because this is what happens to people who "leak" "state secrets".
Writing a story denouncing a politician can get you a lawsuit.
More likely, it will get you a lawsuit for libel.
Brazilian law is very repressive. It's ranked as "Partly Free" by the Freedom House on its Map of Press Freedom.
Unfortunately, public awareness for this kind of issue is very low.
English is not my first language. Corrections and suggestions are welcome.
Surely population and removal requests are not linked? A repressive government would want to remove more results irrespective of how many citizens it is repressing.
Yes, also an US ambassador was kidnapped by a Communist guerrilla group in the 60s or 70s.
The fight between the military government (morally conservative but very pro-state intervention in economics) and it's opposition both democratic (mostly in the current Social Democratic Party, PSDB, the opposition) and the Communist guerrilla/syndicate leaders (the Workers Party, the current government) mostly shaped the contemporary Brazilian politics.
The opposition between a strong government and two other groups supporting strong government practices. A kind of liberalist nightmare.
Since the only viable parties come from the left the country is economically very statist. Almost any big project has a state-owned company in it.
And due to it's past it's also very repressive in politics for a democracy.
English is not my first language. Corrections and suggestions are welcome.
You are greatly exaggerating. Google explicitly states that it takes down material when, amongst other conditions, it violates local law. Google has to comply as much with local law as you and I - at home and when we are abroad.
Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
Google China's top sale (Zhongjie Song) has joined Chinese yellow page website www.aibang.com as president.
The top R/D person (Jin Wang) joined google's direct competitor Baidu as vice president.
I think I know what other google's employees in China are busy with recently? And I don't see why they will end up in jail.
There is a spark in every single flame bait point.