The Myth of a Borderless Internet
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/06/the-myth-of-a-borderless-internet/394670/
This lack of transparency becomes an issue when the question is not
"what is four plus four?" but "What time is it in Ramallah?" Two years
ago, the answer to this query was returned in a Google box that stated
it was 2:00 p.m. in "Ramallah, Israel." While Apple and other
companies have faced controversy for their labeling of disputed
Jerusalem, the location of Ramallah is hardly disputed: The city is
the home of the Palestinian Authority, and situated in the West Bank,
in what is referred to by most of the world (including the United
States) as the occupied territories. When prompted, Google fixed the
situation by removing any reference to country--responses to queries
about time in Ramallah now place the city outside of national
territory, as do queries about time in other disputed locales such as
Dakhla (in Western Sahara, under Moroccan control) and Sevastopol (in
Crimea, under Russian control).
- - -
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein ([email protected]): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://google.com/+LaurenWeinstein
Twitter: http://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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