Censorship by Google is Google corporation's willful removal or lack of inclusion of certain information from its services. Such policies have resulted in controversy and have drawn accusations of ethics violations and bias.
Web search
On October 22, 2002, a study reported that approximately 113 Internet sites had been removed from the German and French versions of Google.
Germany and France
Main article: Google China China
In 2002 Google was found to have censored websites that provided information about Scientology, in compliance with the United States' DMCA legislation.[2] [3]
Google replaced the banned results with links to the DMCA complaint that caused the site to be removed. The DMCA complaint contains the site to be removed, and the organizations that requested the removal (e.g. [4]) The publicity stemming from this incident was the impetus for Google's making public of the DMCA notices on the Chilling Effects archive, which archives legal threats of all sorts made against Internet users and Internet sites.[5]
Scientology
On the 21st of September, 2006 [6], it was reported that Google had 'delisted' Inquisition 21st Century [7], a website which claims to challenge moral authoritarian and sexually absolutist ideas in the United Kingdom. According to Inquisition 21 themselves, Google was acting "in support of a campaign by law enforcement agencies in the US and UK to suppress emerging information about their involvement in major malpractice", allegedly exposed by their own investigation of and legal action against those who carried out Operation Ore, a groundbreaking, far reaching and much criticized law enforcement campaign against the viewers of child pornography [8].
Criticism of Child Pornography operation
Sites critical of Islam
On January 12, 2007, the news site Uruknet stopped appearing in the Google News index.
Site critical of U.S. policy
YouTube, a video sharing website and subsidiary of Google, has a Terms of Service that prohibits the posting of videos which violate copyrights or depict pornography, illegal acts, gratuitous violence, or hate speech. User-posted videos that violate such terms may be removed and replaced with a message stating "This video has been removed due to terms of use violation."
YouTube
In March 2007, satellite imagery on Google Maps showing post-Hurricane Katrina damage in the U.S. state of Louisiana was replaced with images from before the storm.
Advertising
On May 10, 2007, shareholders of Google voted down an anti-censorship proposal for the company. The text of the failed proposal stated that:
David Drummond, senior vice president for corporate development, said "Pulling out of China, shutting down Google.cn, is just not the right thing to do at this point....but that's exactly what this proposal would do."
Data that can identify individual users should not be hosted in Internet-restricting countries, where political speech can be treated as a crime by the legal system.
The company will not engage in pro-active censorship.
The company will use all legal means to resist demands for censorship. The company will only comply with such demands if required to do so through legally binding procedures.
Users will be clearly informed when the company has acceded to legally binding government requests to filter or otherwise censor content that the user is trying to access.
Users should be informed about the company's data retention practices, and the ways in which their data is shared with third parties.
The company will document all cases where legally binding censorship requests have been complied with, and that information will be publicly available.
In 2002 Google was found to have censored websites that provided information about Scientology, in compliance with the United States' DMCA legislation.[2] [3]
Google replaced the banned results with links to the DMCA complaint that caused the site to be removed. The DMCA complaint contains the site to be removed, and the organizations that requested the removal (e.g. [4]) The publicity stemming from this incident was the impetus for Google's making public of the DMCA notices on the Chilling Effects archive, which archives legal threats of all sorts made against Internet users and Internet sites.[5]
Scientology
On the 21st of September, 2006 [6], it was reported that Google had 'delisted' Inquisition 21st Century [7], a website which claims to challenge moral authoritarian and sexually absolutist ideas in the United Kingdom. According to Inquisition 21 themselves, Google was acting "in support of a campaign by law enforcement agencies in the US and UK to suppress emerging information about their involvement in major malpractice", allegedly exposed by their own investigation of and legal action against those who carried out Operation Ore, a groundbreaking, far reaching and much criticized law enforcement campaign against the viewers of child pornography [8].
Criticism of Child Pornography operation
Sites critical of Islam
On January 12, 2007, the news site Uruknet stopped appearing in the Google News index.
Site critical of U.S. policy
YouTube, a video sharing website and subsidiary of Google, has a Terms of Service that prohibits the posting of videos which violate copyrights or depict pornography, illegal acts, gratuitous violence, or hate speech. User-posted videos that violate such terms may be removed and replaced with a message stating "This video has been removed due to terms of use violation."
YouTubeIn March 2007, satellite imagery on Google Maps showing post-Hurricane Katrina damage in the U.S. state of Louisiana was replaced with images from before the storm.
Advertising
On May 10, 2007, shareholders of Google voted down an anti-censorship proposal for the company. The text of the failed proposal stated that:
David Drummond, senior vice president for corporate development, said "Pulling out of China, shutting down Google.cn, is just not the right thing to do at this point....but that's exactly what this proposal would do."
Data that can identify individual users should not be hosted in Internet-restricting countries, where political speech can be treated as a crime by the legal system.
The company will not engage in pro-active censorship.
The company will use all legal means to resist demands for censorship. The company will only comply with such demands if required to do so through legally binding procedures.
Users will be clearly informed when the company has acceded to legally binding government requests to filter or otherwise censor content that the user is trying to access.
Users should be informed about the company's data retention practices, and the ways in which their data is shared with third parties.
The company will document all cases where legally binding censorship requests have been complied with, and that information will be publicly available.
