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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."
Queue the people explaining how this is evil because its "not enough".
So basically, -1 troll/offtopic is really slashdots way of saying "I hate that you thought of something before me."
So if Google's already shown if a state considers that information a state secret they'll recind publishing it, who wants to bet there will be a bill in Congress by tomorrow classifying it in the states too?
This
Now I have something else to distinguish myself from our brothers to the south besides a ridiculous accent and a distinct smell of maple syrup!
And tell them where they can put their "state secrets". Maybe if they disclose all their "requests", they'll stop making them.. But no... appeasement is the word of the day.
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
So why can't Google tell China to go pound sand and post them anyway? They can always blame it on some anonymous hacker, say the data was found in a bar, or just slip it to Wiki Leaks.
"I'm not a quack, I'm a mad scientist! There's a difference." - Dr. Cockroach
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.
For anyone else interested in requesting the same info, here is the link: http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/request.py?contact_type=privacy&ctx=contactpolicy
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
I don't think Orwell saw that one coming...
One that hath name thou can not otter
google could have so easily gone the traditional "sacrifice all your values for the pursuit of money route", but they actually showed they have principles and a backbone
google, you've earned my loyalty and respect. integrity: what a rare and wonderful concept
as for china considering censorship requests to be state secrets: well of course it does. just like the church of scientology considers its sacred texts to be intellectual property. i mean, if you're going to be a controlling asshole, at least be true to the concept to the inevitable extreme of absurdity, right?
wikileaks: get that list of censorship requests. google, give that list up: you've already burned your bridges
oh, and btw: fuck you censorial controlling assholes. you are clearly on the losing side of history. i look forward to your inevitable demise
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
"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
March 22, 2010: Google starts redirecting all traffic to their uncensored Google Hong Kong.
March 30, 2010: Mainland China blocks all Google service. The block only lasted a day.
Beijing used a lot of harsh words, but in the end Google and all their employee in PRC were not prosecuted and they continue to operate without censorship on Chinese soil. Google - 1, China - 0 so far.
If you are in a minority that believes Child Porn is OK and Hate speech is OK...
I don't believe those things are OK, but I do know that censorship is much worse. Find another way to deal with the problem..
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
One day, possibly not long from now, we're going to see China freed from the dictatorial, self-serving government Mao imposed on it.
That's going to be a pretty good day.
A quick look at the tool shows that Brazil is the top country in both categories (largely because Orkut is popular there)
The reason Brazil is the top country is not only due to Orkut's popularity, but because many Brazilian laws were designed to limit freedom of speech and free enterprise. Anyone remember this?
A significant part of these government requests is probably tied to lawsuits involving Adwords. In the past, companies have been sued and found guilty for using their competitors' names as keywords in Adwords, for example. This practice is perfectly legal in most countries, including the US.
I wonder if Google can make this popular enough to pressure countries into changing their laws.
Without China, other governments will get the same idea, and the tool becomes completely useless. C'mon Google, grow some balls.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
As a Brazilian, I'm glad this exposes a situation which isn't usually discussed but should be given more attention now that Brazil is trying to gain additional worldwide relevance (through G20 and all that).
Brazilian courts have been extremely unreasonable and have forced Google to hand over private information and take down pages without much fanfare. Even though none of the data is actually hosted in Brazil, the courts have fined and threatened to fine Google several times because of this.
In Brazil, service providers have liability for their users actions and there are laws protecting the "private image" of individuals (even celebrities). In effect, paparazzi can be sued around here. Journalists can be sued and bloggers aren't considered journalists. Writing a story denouncing a politician can get you a lawsuit.
All this mess accounts for a lot of these requests. Google isn't being evil, but I wish there was more international pressure against the Brazilian government.
Today I had a notion that I can only wish might become viral. Since the Chinese government wants to censor web pages that critisize the Chinese government, the logical thing to do is to get some sort of criticism onto all possible web pages .
(Example criticism: "The Chinese government is run by cowardly barbarians. They are proved to be cowards because they are afraid to let their citizens have guns; they are proved to be barbarians because they think their political views are the only ones that matter. The Chinese government therefore deserves to be replaced; the Chinese people need to replace their government with people who are not cowardly barbarians.")
The result, of course, is that the idiot Chineses government censors will try to censor the entire Internet outside of China, which will not be tolerated for long by the Chinese people....
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
Speech of any kind should be ok. Speech never harms anyone - actions do. The state (of any nation) has no business limiting any speech, unless it is slanderous.
March 22, 2010: Google starts redirecting all traffic to their uncensored Google Hong Kong.
March 30, 2010: Mainland China blocks all Google service. The block only lasted a day.
Beijing used a lot of harsh words, but in the end Google and all their employee in PRC were not prosecuted and they continue to operate without censorship on Chinese soil. Google - 1, China - 0 so far.
I'd like to be all snarky and groupthink, and throw out a "[citation needed]", but in all honesty, I'd just like links to verify the information. Yeah, yeah, I could "just google it", but why should I go to all that effort, when I haven't even bothered to actually read the article?
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
In both Google Blog posts, it is stated that they comply with takedown requests for such "obviously illegal" material as child pornography.
It would appear, however, that some of the material they treat as such is not in fact obviously illegal, is not child pornography, and does not fall within the scope of mandatory removal statutes of US federal law (viz. 18 U.S.C. 2258B(c)(1)).
Here is a report of one case where Google has acted on a child porn complaint while the material at hand was in fact Japanese pornographic comic books (i.e. drawings!):
This type of material may be unsavory to some, but it can be found on the official sites of many major Japanese publishers as well, and is widely available in Japanese book shops. The legality of the material in the US is not completely clear, but only because of obscenity laws (as opposed to child porn laws): i.e. it is on an equal legal footing with BDSM porn, scat, rape play porn and others (as in, possibly illegal in the Bible Belt and first amendment-protected speech elsewhere due to different community standards).
It appears that Google has ignored subsequent requests by the targeted site to reconsider the takedown:
Sure, they have a right to take down whatever they want, but it's a bit disingenuous to pose as virtuous defenders of free speech afterwards.
And there was Google reprehending Australia's government for wanting to censor data. But here we have Google's home country the USA giving 23 times the data requests and 7 times the censorship requests.
This doesn't change the fact that the internet filter is a stupid idea.
It does give a better view of how things are right now - one situation (the internet filter) is a possibility, it may happen, and one (current Google censoring requests) is reality, it's happening right now.