Google Removes Offensive Obama Image; Was It Justified?

Nov 19, 2009 at 1:19pm ET by Matt McGee

Saying the host site was serving malware to users, Google has removed a controversial photo of First Lady Michelle Obama from Google Image Search. The site itself, however, remains listed in Google web search results without any visible malware warning. Welcome to the murky world of free speech, politics, and Google. It began last week, when Search Engine Roundtable pointed out a racist image showing as the number one result in Google Image Search for the term [Michelle Obama]. The image was apparently removed yesterday. In a Google Web Search Help Forum thread discussing the image, [...]

Filed in: Google: Critics, Google: Images, Legal: Censorship, Top News

Chinese Newspaper Says Google Censored Its Web Site

Oct 27, 2009 at 2:04pm ET by Matt McGee

Oh, the irony: The People's Daily, the main newspaper of China's Communist Party, says Google censored its web site by adding a malware warning to search result listings for the newspaper's book section. The paper says the malware warning appeared after it ran an article about a Chinese group that has suggested Google's book search settlement might violate the rights of Chinese authors. The paper says the malware warning appeared for three days, and claimed that its book section was "maliciously blocked by Google." Google called the claims "absolutely incorrect" and pointed out that i [...]

Filed in: Google: Critics, Google: Outside US, Legal: Censorship

Google Skirts Around South Korea Law With YouTube

Apr 13, 2009 at 1:21pm ET by Barry Schwartz

PC World reports Google has disabled the ability for users to upload videos or comment on videos at YouTube Korea. Google made this move after South Korea passed a new law that requires sites with 100,000 unique visitors per day to require users to provide their real name and national ID card number before posting such videos and comments. Google still allows videos to be uploaded and comments to be added while in Korea, as long as you change the YouTube Korea site to a non-Korean version, within the YouTube settings section. This is Google's way of "skirting around" the new law. YouTube [...]

Filed in: Google: Business Issues, Google: Legal, Google: Outside US, Google: YouTube & Video, Legal: Censorship, Legal: Privacy

California Lawmaker Jumps On ‘Google Maps Helps Terrorists’ Bandwagon

Mar 9, 2009 at 12:44pm ET by Matt McGee

A California lawmaker has introduced a bill that would limit what Google Maps and other online mapping sites are allowed to show, on the basis that these online tools help terrorists plan attacks. We've been here before: Late last year, the Indian government suggested that Google Earth should be censored after terrorists involved in the Mumbai attacks reportedly admitted to using Google Earth when planning their missions. According to The Industry Standard, the new California bill would prevent Google and others from showing "aerial or satellite images of schools, places of worship, go [...]

Filed in: Google: Earth, Google: Legal, Google: Maps & Local, Legal: Censorship, Legal: Privacy

Google: ‘Don’t Blame Us For Terrorism’

Feb 13, 2009 at 8:26am ET by Matt McGee

Comparing it to blaming car makers for deadly car bombs, Google Earth chief John Hanke recently said Google shouldn't be blamed for terrorist use of Google Earth. Hanke defended his online mapping tools in a recent interview with the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. "You have cars; you have car bombs," Hanke said. "You have GPS transceivers that help you navigate; those GPS transceivers could be used for lots of nefarious purposes. Cell phones have all kinds of benefits; cell phones can be used to detonate a remote explosive device." His comments are in response to ongoing concerns over [...]

Filed in: Google: Earth, Google: Legal, Google: Maps & Local, Legal: Censorship, Legal: Privacy

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