US Politicians Attack Search Engines
US Politicians Attack Search Engines
February 17, 2006: US politicians have slammed Google, Yahoo and Microsoft this week for complying with the Chinese governments censorship demands, proposing new laws to alter the way US businesses deal with certain foreign governments.
The proposed legislation, expected to be introduced to congress this week, could have potent effects on any US company doing business in countries such as China, Iran and Vietnam who are seen as being overly Internet-restricting.
Titled the Global Online Freedom Act of 2006, if passed the new laws will place a number of broad restrictions on companies working with Internet-restricting governments. This includes making it unlawful to filter search results and to turn over information about users to certain governments unless approved by the U.S. Justice Department.
So far, Yahoo has been chastised internationally for providing the Chinese government with information used to gaol a Chinese journalist, Microsoft has been caught deleting another journalist’s blog on MSN and Google has had its good-guy image tarnished for launching a censored version of its search engine in China.
The three companies have argued that their presence in China, albeit a censored one, is better than the greater information void that would exist in their absence.
"When we receive a demand from law enforcement authorized under the law of the country in which we operate, we must comply," says Michael Callahan, Yahoo general counsel in response to the attack launched by the US congress. "This is a real example of why this issue is bigger than any one company and any one industry. All companies must respond in the same way."
Their cooperation with the Chinese government however, is meeting more accusations of ruthless corporate profiteering than freedom-fighting.
If the bill is passed companies that violate its terms can be fined up to US$2 million for each offence, while company directors will be subject to criminal penalties of up to five years gaol.
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