[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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