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US: Obama lobbied over internet censorship

Date: 30 Jun 2009

One week after the Chinese government blocked access to Google's website on the grounds that it contained too many links to sites that were considered unsavoury, campaign groups are urging President Obama to pass legislation that would punish companies that they feel collaborate with governments that require internet censorship.

The focus is the Global Online Freedom Act, which would make it illegal for US companies to profit from involvement in online censorship. It would present a major challenge for companies such as Google and Microsoft who are required, in order to be able to do business in China at all, to operate in line with the government's censorship rules.

In the past, the focus had particularly been on political expression. Search results for terms such as 'Tiananmen Square' are censored the sites that might refer to the student protests that were broken up there by the Chinese military. Microsoft's new search engine rival to Google, named 'Bing', also censors results in China in the same way.

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Comment by: Jeffrey Siegle on 4 Jul 2009

I am an American living in Ecuador with my Ecuadorian wife, a retired J.D. As many expats do, I use the internet daily to filter news for accuracy and against local political slant, both left and right. Back in May, I noticed that Google Ecuador had removed the news link (Noticias) from their mast head on their home page. At first I had thought this was a glitch, and let it go for a few weeks. Then I decided to take some action.

My first stop was the Google Help Forums. There, I was either stonewalled or had my claims denied outright, and told that New Google Ecuador never existed. After a brief moment, in which I doubted my sanity, I decided to investigate this.

I used the international web archive, The Wayback Machine at web.archive.org to determine and verify changes from past versions. What I found was alarming:

Google Ecuador had not only removed all references and links to News from its home page, but from its entire directory contents. (Even Google China has not done this!)

I emailed my findings to Jonathan Zittrain of The Berkman Center, and to Marissa Mayer, Google VP of Internet Search and User Experience. After two weeks, I have heard nothing. (The Berkman Center lists Google as one of its major endowment sources.)

During this time, I reverted to my habit of self criticism. My article and research were focused on my own interests confined to my little corner of the world. I recalled advice I had often followed throughout my life.

“Ask the greater question.” Marcus Aurelius

In this case, the greater question is, “Is what I reported isolated to Ecuador alone; or is it a phenomenon of greater Latin America?”

So, I proceeded to investigate the Latin American Google for signs of censorship and exclusion, using the same criteria I applied with my previous investigation of Google Ecuador. Though they are not part of South America , by definition, I included Cuba and Dominicana on the basis of the ties to the continent and ALBA. As before, I used the international web archive, The Wayback Machine at web.archive.org.

For simplicity sake and to present a clear view of trend, I compiled my work into MS Excel. (The can be provided upon request.)

From the data the following conclusions can be made:

Between the years 2003 and 2004, seventeen (17) countries in Latin America , had their own Google website.

By October 2004, all of these Google entities had their own Noticias pages, with a link (i.e. news.google.com.pe for Peru ), appearing on the masthead of the Google home page of their respective countries.

Recently, ALL* ALBA members have removed the link Noticias from the masthead of their home pages.

(*This excludes Cuba and Venezuela. According to Reporters Without Borders website, Venezuela and Cuba are connected by a fiber optic cable which was installed by a Chinese company, Huwai. Reportedly, though Noticias does exist on both countries’ Google sites; with the Chinese connection, their recognized expertise in censor based software, and the Castro/Chavez penchant for government control of the media, it is not hard to suspect that websites and search word content are heavily censored.)

At around the same time Noticias was removed from appearing on the Home Page, the individual country news links (news.google.com.[country code]) These URL’s are all redirected to news.google.com (which is in English!)

Google’s in Peru, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina and Chile still main their own Noticias, with links on the mastheads of their home pages.

Out of the countries not members of ALBA, the Google sites of Guatemala, Paraguay, and Uruguay have undergone changes similar to their ALBA neighbors.

While Google Ecuador remains the worst of the offenders, access to the news has been largely restricted to a population greater than that of the U.S.

The greater question is...

It is not in the economic interest of Google to remove pages. This entails additional expense, while simultaneously removing sources of income… What motivated Google to act outside of their immediate interests?

Why are news pages, previously aimed at a Spanish speaking audience, now directed to EEUU pages in English?

What is the significance of the fact that the countries whose Google sites that underwent this curtailing of information, are predominantly ALBA?

What is the significance that these changes occurred almost simultaneously?

Perhaps, as Bob Dylan sang, "The answers my friend, are blowin' in the wind."

Or, perhaps the questions haven't been asked to the right people.

You have my unrestricted permission to use this information and its sources, in whatever way you deem appropriate.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey Siegle
Guayaquil, Ecuador

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