Google censorship: Needed?

Google Inc. is an American multinational corporation which provides Internet-related products and services, including Internet search, cloud computing, software and advertising technologies. The company's mission statement is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" (Vise, 2005).

Google has been estimated to run over one million servers in data centers around the world, and processes over one billion search requests and about twenty-four petabytes of user-generated data every day (Vise, 2005). This dominant market position of Google's services has led to criticism of the company over issues including privacy, copyright, and censorship.

Source: fanpop.com

Based on those criticisms, Google has adopted ‘Network neutrality’ which is the principle that Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet. Just as telephone companies are not permitted to tell consumers who they can call or what they can say, broadband carriers should not be allowed to use their market power to control activity online (Kuhn, 2009).

In China, Google.cn search results were filtered to remove some results concerning the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, sites supporting the independence movements of Tibet and Taiwan, the Falun Gong movement, and other information perceived to be harmful to the People's Republic of China (PRC) (Henry, 2006). Google claimed that some censorship is necessary in order to keep the Chinese government from blocking Google entirely, as occurred in 2002. Some Chinese Internet users were critical of Google for assisting the Chinese government in repressing its own citizens, particularly those dissenting against the government and advocating for human rights as Google was said to be against a similar decision made by the United States of America government simultaneously (Carlson, 2010).

Source: chinabiz.com

It is believed that a strong majority of those materials which are ordered to be taken down are politically inclined as well as deemed to be a threat to national security (Cusack, 2007). What about censorship of petty materials? Freedom of speech and access to information is the key to national growth (Platante, 2009). Therefore, in my opinion, Google should adopt an approach whereby all information is accessible by anyone at any time unless the material causes copyright infringement.

References

1. Vise, D.A 2005. "Online Ads Give Google Huge Gain in Profit". The Washington Post. Retrieved June 26 2012.

2. Kuhn, E 2009. "CNN Politics – Political Ticker... Google unveils top political searches of 2009". CNN. Retrieved June 26 2012

3. Henry, T 2006. “Race to the Bottom”: Corporate Complicity in Chinese Internet Censorship, Part IV. How Multinational Internet Companies assist Government Censorship in China, Human Rights Watch, Vol. 18 No. 8(C), Retrieved June 26 2012.

4. Carlson, N 2010. "BREAKING: Google Pulls Search Engine Out Of China". Business Insider. Retrieved June 26 2012.

5. Cusack, J 2007. “The Great Wall: China Against the World, 1000 BC–AD 2000”, Julia Lovell, Grove/Atlantic, Retrieved June 26 2012.

6. Platante, P.L 2009, Freedom of Speech: Key principle for development, Sage Publications, Inc. United States of America. Retrieved June 26 2012.