Google starting to censor blogs
Selected by Rael
The Raelian Movement
for those who are not afraid of the future : http://www.rael.org
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http://rt.com/usa/news/google-starts-censoring-blogs-375/
Google starting to censor blogs
Published: 02 February, 2012, 22:25
Following Twitter's decision last month to begin censoring the messages of
users based on restrictions of their respective countries, Google has
followed suit and announced that it will begin a similar practice with its
own blogging service.
Blogger, the web-log service run by Internet giant Google, will begin
censoring the personal posts of its users in order to comply with local laws
rather than encouraging an internationally open Internet. While the company
has previously allowed users of the World Wide Web to post wide-open
opinions on its Blogger site, it will now allow individual jurisdictions to
govern what can and can't be posted on the Web.
Under Google's new policies, personal pages hosted on Blogger will be
redirected to country-specific URLs, such as ".in" for India and ".au" for
Australia. The company writes that "Migrating to localized domains will
allow us to continue promoting free expression and responsible publishing
while providing greater flexibility in complying with valid removal requests
pursuant to local law."
By implementing this, adds Google, "content removals can be managed on a per
country basis, which will limit their impact to the smallest number of
readers."
Specifically, they acknowledge that "Content [will be] removed due to a
specific country's law."
The company's announcement comes only weeks after Twitter announced almost
identical standards that will allow the microblogging site to start
censoring tweets specific to their country of origin as well. With both
entities representing a massive chunk of online traffic internationally,
advocates against Internet regulations fear what repercussions will follow.
The kick-off of the Arab Spring last year was magnified in part by the ease
in which updates were transmitted from cities such as Cairo and Benghazi,
where news was often relayed with tweets and emails sent direct from the
scene.
Google and Twitter's previous policies allowed users to operate as per
American law, permitting a much more permeable flow of information. By
adopting its new rules, however, the countries where freedom of speech and
Internet are practically nonexistent will be able to censor specific topics.
Those same locales, of course, are countries where the same government that
censors the Internet also often enforces other authoritarian regulations
that ravage hopes of Democracy.
"The change marks a new trend in American Internet companies bowing to the
demands of authoritarian regimes," writes Open Net Initiative in a statement
this week. Amnesty International has also responded with a statement of
their, insisting that, "As with other sectors, business decisions in the
digital world have human rights implications. Human rights monitors and
advocates have a lot more work to do since the digital revolution."
"Our collective vigilance is needed more than ever," adds the group.
According to the web-ranking service Alexa, Twitter and Blogger are the
ninth and forty-fifth most visited sites on the Internet.
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WARNING FROM RAEL: For those who don't use their intelligence at its
full capacity, the label "selected by RAEL" on some articles does not
mean that I agree with their content or support it. "Selected by RAEL"
means that I believe it is important for the people of this planet to
know about what people think or do, even when what they think or do is
completely stupid and against our philosophy. When I selected articles
in the past about stupid Christian fundamentalists in America praying
for rain, I am sure no Rael-Science reader was stupid enough to
believe that I was supporting praying to change the weather. So, when
I select articles which are in favor of drugs, anti-semitic,
anti-Jewish, racist, revisionist, or inciting hatred against any group
or religion, or any other stupid article, it does not mean that I
support them. It just means that it is important for all human beings
to know about them. Common sense, which is usually very good among our
readers, is good enough to understand that. When, like in the recent
articles on drug decriminalization, it is necessary to make it
clearer, I add a comment, which in this case was very clear: I support
decriminalizing all drugs, as it is stupid to throw depressed and sad
people (as only depressed and sad people use drugs) in prison and ruin
their life with a criminal record. That does not mean that there is
any change to the Message which says clearly that we must not use any
drug except for medical purposes. The same applies to the freedom of
expression which must be absolute. That does not mean again of course
that I agree with anti-Jews, antisemites, racists of any kind or
anti-Raelians. But by knowing your enemies or the enemies of your
values, you are better equipped to fight them. With love and respect
of course, and with the wonderful sentence of the French philosopher
Voltaire in mind: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to
the death your right to say it".