After all the discussion and press articles about Google pulling out of mainland China due to censorship restrictions, the search engine is now going even further to piss off the authorities. And not just in China.
Google has a new site, aptly titled Google Government Requests, that lists which countries are requesting information from them and about what. It’s quite an interesting exercise in empowering the populace and letting the ‘little guys’ know what exactly their governments are nervous about. According to a piece in Bloomberg Business Week, Brazil tops the list of countries requesting from the search engine information on individuals and also which sites they want taken down; the US and UK follow closely behind.
So, what does this mean for both Google and freedom of expression? It certainly shows that the world is not as black and white as the press often paints. The ogre’s aren’t necessarily the obvious ones – N. Korea, China, and Iran. Google’s lawyer, Nicole Wong, had this to say about their desire for more information transparency. “There is a lack of information about what governments do, and that makes people wonder.” Indeed – so why not point the camera where it usually never goes?
It benefits Google to have as much freedom as possible, but we can also see how the idea of ‘democracy’ is now being policed with technology, and is not just guff from politicians. Who knows, maybe the Google maxim of “don’t be evil” is something they actually mean; and they might just be instrumental in heading off a new era of McCarthyism before it actually begins. You think it’s not possible? Just wait until the pendulum swings back to the right in America and the country has a new generation of paranoid ‘patriot acts’ to contend with. At least, now you know, that big brother is being watched as well.
