Google and human rights?
Google plans to operate its search engine in China. Previously not being accessible by the citizen of China, it is reported by The Intercept that top officials of Google and China are in talks to implement a censored Google Search engine. The official implementation could be less than half a year. Which when implemented will violate numerous human rights. Such as blocking access to books, researchers, political censorship, free speech articles and more. The search engine will acquire the filtered sites through the “Great Firewall”. When any blocked content is searched, a warning may be displayed as such, “some results may have been removed due to statutory requirements”.
“It will be a dark day for internet freedom if Google has acquiesced to China’s extreme censorship rules to gain market access. It is impossible to see how such a move is compatible with Google’s ‘Do the right thing’ motto, and we are calling on the company to change course… “This also raises serious questions as to what safeguards Google is putting in place to protect users’ privacy. Would Google rollover and hand over personal data should the Chinese authorities request it?” – China Researcher at Amnesty International continued.
A template for other nations. According to an employee at Google, this implementation could be a template of oppression for other nations. “I’m against large companies and governments collaborating in the oppression of their people, and feel like transparency around what’s being done is in the public interest,” the source said, adding that they feared “what is done in China will become a template for many other nations.”
Is Google reaching too far now, is it really profit over freedom of speech?
