Google Seeks Help to Battle China Censors

Jun 25, 04:29 PM

Current Headlines: By BILL CONDIE

ONLINE search giant Google, which capitulated to Chinese demands for censorship, now sees the practice as a threat to business and has enlisted the help of US trade officials.

The company set up by Sergey Brin and Larry Page with the motto "do no evil", says the rapid growth in censorship in Asia and the Middle East is its "number one barrier to trade". Google director of public policy and government affairs Andrew McLaughlin argues that the practice should be seen in the same light as high tariffs and other restrictive trade practices.

He has met officials from the office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) several times this year to discuss the matter. Censorship, usually handled by the State Department, could well now be considered an economic issue.

"If censorship regimes create barriers to trade in violation of international trade rules, the USTR would get involved," USTR spokeswoman Gretchen Hamel said.

Google now sees the tightening as a threat to its advertising- driven business model, limiting the websites users can see. "It's fair to say that censorship is the number one barrier to trade that we face,"

McLaughlin said. In the past, Google has been accused of colluding with censors in China in order to do business there. The company defends its actions, saying the Chinese government made it a condition of allowing Chinese users access to Google web pages. China has an internet firewall that slows or disrupts Chinese users from accessing foreign uncensored websites.

A study last month by the OpenNet Initiative found that 25 of 41 countries surveyed censored the internet, against two or three in 2002.

Google's video-sharing website YouTube has become a new target for authoritarian regimes. The site was banned in Thailand earlier this year when a video critical of the country's king was posted. The military junta running the country has dramatically increased web blocking and filtering of political sites since ousting Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in September.

Turkey blocked YouTube for two days in March after a complaint that some clips insulted the country's founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Morocco took similar action last month.

Google says it is now time to use trade agreements to fight back by including provisions guaranteeing free trade in "information services".

Under World Trade Organisation rules, countries can limit trade for national security or public moral reasons, exceptions that authoritarian governments would be likely to cite when filtering politically sensitive material.

But still Google is sending a mixed message.

At the annual meeting last month, a shareholder resolution urging the firm to renounce censorship was beaten after the board recommended investors vote against..

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