Is Google determining free speech limits??

News Type: Event — Seeded on Mon Dec 1, 2008 7:36 AM EST

Article Source: The New York Times

world-news, internet, media, google, journalism, rights, censorship, free-speech, you-tube

Today the Web might seem like a free-speech panacea: it has given anyone with Internet access the potential to reach a global audience. But though technology enthusiasts often celebrate the raucous explosion of Web speech, there is less focus on how the Internet is actually regulated, and by whom. As more and more speech migrates online, to blogs and social-networking sites and the like, the ultimate power to decide who has an opportunity to be heard, and what we may say, lies increasingly with Internet service providers, search engines and other Internet companies like Google, Yahoo, AOL, Facebook and even eBay.

The most powerful and protean of these Internet gatekeepers is, of course, Google. With control of 63 percent of the world's Internet searches, as well as ownership of YouTube, Google has enormous influence over who can find an audience on the Web around the world. As an acknowledgment of its power, Google has given Nicole Wong a central role in the company's decision-making process about what controversial user-generated content goes down or stays up on YouTube and other applications owned by Google, including Blogger, the blog site; Picasa, the photo-sharing site; and Orkut, the social networking site.

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{"commentId":4244493,"authorDomain":"bgates43"}

bgates43

Law Professor Jeffrey Rosen's article from the New York Times magazine should be must reading for anyone interested in the future of free expression. Here's another excerpt:

“To love Google, you have to be a little bit of a monarchist, you have to have faith in the way people traditionally felt about the king,” Tim Wu, a Columbia law professor and a former scholar in residence at Google, told me recently. “One reason they’re good at the moment is they live and die on trust, and as soon as you lose trust in Google, it’s over for them.” Google’s claim on our trust is a fragile thing.

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2 votes

#1 - Mon Dec 1, 2008 7:42 AM EST

{"commentId":4244653,"authorDomain":"dougeldridge"}

vendetta

The internet should never, ever be regulated in any way what so ever. It is the last bastion of complete freedom, it is a living, breathing, changing entity; and censorship shall only succeed in stifling its growth.

Its true, the only gatekeepers are the ISP's and even they I believe are trampling over this freedom trying to regulate the internet in some small way. However, I will say its not all their fault. For the most part the only close the gate at the request of the GOVERNMENTS who enact far reaching laws that reach into cyberspace.

That being said, Google is a company that tries to work for transparency and even have the motto: ' Don’t be evil ". They too however are not immune to closing the gate on people. When they choose not to boycott CHINA for censoring its search results and in stead compromised, that left a bad taste in my mouth.

It was a tough decision though, stop china from using the service and make a world statement, or allow them to twist Google into something they deem appropriate so that people of CHINA still get some access.

In the end, as cyber and reality merge more and more (devices vs. reality) the governments of this planet will feel they have no choice but to try and slither their way into this undiscovered country and strangle it into submission. And an electronic battle between the ‘monarchs’ and the hackers, and the cyber revolutionists will rage.

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1 vote

#2 - Mon Dec 1, 2008 8:28 AM EST

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bgates43

I agree, vendetta, that the internet shouldn't be regulated. However, I'm worried when big companies like Google exert such strong control. That's why it's important to keep a close eye on how they're living up to the "Don't be evil" motto you cited.

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1 vote

#3 - Mon Dec 1, 2008 9:07 AM EST

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BGATES43

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Is Google determining free speech limits??

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