p2pnet - rss feed: Google, world political force
p2pnet.net news view:- The writing is on the wall. And it’s truly frightening.
Google, accused of ongoing Net censorship along with other US majors such as Microsoft, Cisco and Yahoo, has decided the time is right for it to become a world political force.
Or should that be farce?
It’s launched what it’s calling the Google Public Policy blog, and it’s even flaunting an official it’s labelled Director of Public Policy and Government Affairs.
Says Andrew McLaughlin, the company Public Policy functionary:
At the beginning of 2005, I was Google’s lone public policy guy. Today, there’s a bigger – and growing - team of us scattered around the world, working on issues like privacy, child online safety, copyright and trademark protection, content regulation, reform of the patent system, and broadband policy. These issues are fundamental to the future of the Internet (and of the individuals it empowers), and are increasingly prominent on the agendas of policymakers worldwide.
There’s no mention of how McLaughlin and his growing team plan to operate in countries such as China with whom Google, et al, have prosperous business relationships which seem to violate all the principles of freedom of expression at every turn.
But why shouldn’t that be? After all, the entertainment cartels, with the likes of the Hollywood’s Dan Glickman to the fore, have long been interfering with international politics, particularly in China and Russia.
“We’re seeking to do public policy advocacy in a Googley way,” says McLaughlin.
A Googley way? Jeez.
He goes on:
Yes, we’re a multinational corporation that argues for our positions before officials, legislators, and opinion leaders. At the same time, we want our users to be part of the effort, to know what we’re saying and why, and to help us refine and improve our policy positions and advocacy strategies. With input and ideas from our users, we’ll surely do a better job of fighting for our common interests.
You may, he continues, be wondering why the blog contains two months’ worth of posts, “given that we’re only just now launching”. The answer? Google officially became politically conscious, “internally back in April” when it began to “limber up” its “blogging muscles”.
“Now that we’ve gone public we thought it’d be fun to share our earlier internal posts,” he says. “In the weeks and months ahead, expect to hear more from us on issues like net neutrality, censorship, innovation regulation, immigration, R&D, national security, and trade, just to name a few. All of the members of Google’s global public policy team will be contributing posts (or else - right, team?).”
Right.
There is, you’ll notice, merely a glancing reference to censorship which is, undoubtedly, among the most contentious of issues involving Google and public policy not only in America, but everywhere Larry and Sergey have an established presence.
Back in 2004, I spoke with ‘Do No Evil’ Google spokeswoman Debbie Frost, who denied claims that its Chinese service was censoring news, saying, among other things, “to create the best possible news search experience for our users, we sometimes decide not to include some sites, for a variety of reasons”.
And Google blogged, “We also considered the amount of information that would be omitted. In this case it is less than two percent of Chinese news sources.”
Only two percent? No problem, then. And it’s interesting to note that particular blog is no longer online.
Google’s help entry on censorship used to read:
Google does not censor results for any search term. The order and content of our results are completely automated; we do not manipulate our search results by hand. We believe strongly in allowing the democracy of the web to determine the inclusion and ranking of sites in our search results.
These days, it states categorically:
It is Google’s policy not to censor search results.
It then goes on in the same breath:
However, in response to local laws, regulations, or policies, we may do so.
Google Blogoscoped’s Google Censorship FAQ gives chapter and verse on Google’s censoring policies.
In the meanwhile, “We hope this blog will serve as a resource for policymakers around the world - including legislators, ministers, governors, city councilmembers, regulators, and the staffers who support them - who are trying to enact sound government policies to foster free expression, promote economic growth, expand access to information, enable innovation, and protect consumers,” says McLaughlin, adding with charming modesty:
“We also hope (cliché alert) that this blog will promote real conversation, so we’ve enabled comments.”
Jon Newton - p2pnet
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June 21st, 2007 at 11:16 am
Another prime example of Corporations buying out laws that go against the people’s choice.
July 2nd, 2007 at 2:00 pm
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