Where Google still censors-Forbes

Where Google Still Censors

Andy Greenberg

Forbes Magazine: February 8, 2010

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0208/outfront-technology-china-where-google-still-censors.html

Google’s promise to end its self-censorship in China, a daring response to a Chinese cyber attack, may have brought the shine back to the search giant’s “Don’t Be Evil” ethos. But Google is still blocking certain content in other countries at the demand of their governments. The company won’t comment on whether it plans to change those censorship schemes.

India: To abide by obscenity laws, Google strips out certain pornographic results from its Indian search pages. It has also removed content from the Indian version of its social networking site, Orkut, that’s deemed by the government to be politically incendiary, like one group representing the Hindu nationalist party Shiv Sena.

France and Germany: Their strict ban on hate speech extends to the Web. Google obliges them by blocking search results for extremist groups like the neo-Nazi group Stormfront and the Holocaust denial association AAARGH.

Thailand: Lése-majesté, or insulting the king, is a serious crime in Thailand. Hence Google’s agreement to block Thai users from viewing videos on YouTube (owned by Google) that mocked king Bhumibol Adulyadej, including one that showed him with feet on his head, a symbol of degradation to Thai Buddhists.

Turkey: Google has kowtowed to Turkish government demands that it block a handful of YouTube videos that portrayed Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the revered founder of the country, as a homosexual. Turkey has banned YouTube anyway for the past two years in an attempt to persuade Google to remove the Atatürk clips from global distribution.

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