[LINK] Google tells Conroy to jump

Jan Whitaker jwhit at janwhitaker.com
Thu Feb 11 17:15:22 AEDT 2010



Google baulks at Conroy's call to censor YouTube

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/google-baulks-at-conroys-call-to-censor-youtube-20100211-ntm0.html


ASHER MOSES

February 11, 2010 - 5:07PM

<http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/google-baulks-at-conroys-call-to-censor-youtube-20100211-ntm0.html#comments>Comments 
47

Google says it will not "voluntarily" comply with the government's 
request that it censor YouTube videos in accordance with broad 
"refused classification" (RC) content rules.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy referred to Google's 
censorship on behalf of the Chinese and Thai governments in making 
his case for the company to impose censorship locally.

Google warns this would lead to the removal of many politically 
controversial, but harmless, YouTube clips.

University of Sydney associate professor Bjorn Landfeldt, one of 
Australia's top communications experts, said that to comply with 
Conroy's request Google "would have to install a filter along the 
lines of what they actually have in China".

As it prepares to introduce legislation within weeks forcing ISPs to 
block a blacklist of RC websites, the government says it is in talks 
with Google over blocking the same type of material from YouTube.

YouTube's rules already forbid certain videos that would be 
classified RC, such as sex, violence, bestiality and child 
pornography. But the RC classification extends further to more 
controversial content such as information on euthanasia, material 
about 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=SnsK_4gOYHU>safer drug 
use and material on how to commit more minor crimes such as 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufj29od9nCk&feature=PlayList&p=074561AF8379B09A&index=25>painting 
graffiti.

Google said all of these topics were featured in videos on YouTube 
and it refused to censor these voluntarily. It said exposing these 
topics to public debate was vital for democracy.

In an 
<http://hungrybeast.abc.net.au/stories/stephen-conroy-extended-interview>interview 
with the ABC's Hungry Beast, which aired last night, Conroy said 
applying ISP filters to high-traffic sites such as YouTube would slow 
down the internet, "so we're currently in discussions with Google 
about ... how we can work this through".

"What we're saying is, well in Australia, these are our laws and we'd 
like you to apply our laws," Conroy said.

"Google at the moment filters an enormous amount of material on 
behalf of the Chinese government; they filter an enormous amount of 
material on behalf of the Thai government."

Google Australia's head of policy, Iarla Flynn, said the company had 
a bias in favour of freedom of expression in everything it did and 
Conroy's comparisons between how Australia and China deal with access 
to information were not "helpful or relevant".

Google has recently threatened to pull out of China, partly due to 
continuing requests for it to censor material.

"YouTube has clear policies about what content is not allowed, for 
example hate speech and pornography, and we enforce these, but we 
can't give any assurances that we would voluntarily remove all 
Refused Classification content from YouTube," Flynn said.

"The scope of RC is simply too broad and can raise genuine questions 
about restrictions on access to information. RC includes the grey 
realms of material instructing in any crime from [painting] graffiti 
to politically controversial crimes such as euthanasia, and exposing 
these topics to public debate is vital for democracy."

Asked for further comment, a Google Australia spokeswoman said that, 
while the company "won't comply voluntarily with the broad scope of 
all RC content", it would comply with the relevant laws in countries 
it operates in.

However, if Conroy includes new YouTube regulations in his internet 
filtering legislation, it is not clear if these would apply to Google 
since YouTube is hosted overseas.

"They [Google] don't control the access in Australia - all their 
equipment that would do this is hosted overseas ... and I would find 
it very hard to believe that the Australian government can in any way 
force an American company to follow Australian law in America," Landfeldt said.

"Quite frankly it would really not be workable ... every country in 
the world would come to Google and say this is what you need to do 
for our country. You would not be able to run the kind of services 
that Google provides if that would be the case."

This week the Computer Research and Education Association (CORE) put 
out a statement on behalf of all Australasian computer science 
lecturers and professors opposing the government's internet filtering policy.

They said the filters would only block a fraction of the unwanted 
material available on the internet, be inapplicable to many of the 
current methods of online content distribution and create a false 
sense of security for parents.

CORE said the blacklist could be used by current and future 
governments to restrict freedom of speech, while those determined to 
get around the filters and access nasty content could do so with ease.



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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