Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Google Enumerates Government Requests

http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/04/20/197254/Google-Enumerates-Government-Requests

"In the aftermath of Google's exit from mainland China, it had sought to be more open about what it censors. Google has launched a new tool to track the number of government request targeted at Google and YouTube. These include both requests for data and requests to take down data. A quick look at the tool shows that Brazil is the top country in both categories (largely because Orkut is popular there), and information for China cannot be disclosed because 'Chinese officials consider censorship demands as state secrets.' As part of its four-part plan, Google hopes to change the behavior of repressive governments, establish guiding principles for dealing with issues of free expression, build support online to protest repression, and better provide resources and support for developing technology designed to combat and circumvent Internet censorship."

The tool includes 3703 requests from the US.  I will note though, it's odd they think they can change repressive governments if all it takes to get requests removed is classifying requests as state secrets.

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