Understandable but Very Wrong: Google Enables
Government YouTube Censorship in Pakistan
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/001146.html
Literally within hours of the horrifying and sickening news of a
15-year-old boy in Pakistan who cut off his own right hand after he was
the target of hysterical false accusations of blasphemy, comes word that
Google -- in a successful bid to get a three year YouTube ban in
Pakistan lifted -- will be permitting government officials in that
country -- apparently all the way down to the local level -- essentially
unfettered rights to censor and block individual YouTube videos from
view in Pakistan.
This is an enormously troubling development for free speech advocates
around the world, particularly because it's impossible to overlook the
relationship between the boy's actions and the upcoming Pakistan/YouTube
censorship system.
The powers being ceded to the government there to censor Google at the
individual YouTube video level -- arguably even worse than the EU's
awful "Right To Be Forgotten" (RTBF) scheme -- continues our
acceleration down the slippery slope of permitting governments to demand
rights to micromanage information for their own political benefit and
the personal enrichment (politically and in some cases financially) of
their leaders and other politicians.
I like to think of myself as a "responsible" free speech advocate. That
is, I strongly assert the importance of free speech, but acknowledge
that sometimes, in carefully delineated circumstances that must be
minimized as completely as possible, some restrictions are necessary.
So, for example, I generally strongly support Google/YouTube's global
Terms of Service that prohibit videos that are directly violent -- such
as videos that show physical abuse of people or other animals.
And I have nothing but respect for the Google policy and legal teams
that must deal with these complex multinational situations. Similarly,
the work done by Google engineers on politically neutral abuse detection
systems and that of the human teams that help apply YouTube anti-abuse
rules are also all exemplary.
I've explicitly noted the exceptional circumstances of videos that
incite terrorism, e.g., recently in my discussion of
"A Proposal for Dealing with Terrorist Videos on the Internet"
( http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/001139.html ).
But in Pakistan the concepts of (for example) blasphemy and government
control are intertwined -- accusations of the former are frequently used
for purposes of the latter -- and any discussions that the government
there feels are blasphemous (by their own broad and self-serving
definitions) -- or speaking out against the government in any manner --
are key targets for abusive censorship.
With Google now explicitly buying into this censorship regime as the
price of removing an overall Pakistan block on YouTube -- and note that
the Pakistani government apparently will be setting the standards under
which YT videos will be judged in violation -- the situation in my view
becomes much worse for the population there than would be the case
without access to YT at all (yes, we know that some relatively small
number of people have always gotten through with VPNs and proxies, but
that's largely irrelevant to the overall population).
The Pakistan version of Google-enabled national censorship isn't as
straightforward as say, a relatively "simple" ban against Nazi
memorabilia-related materials in France. In Pakistan, Google has become
much more of a direct partner in the government's very broad,
politically-motivated and personally suppressing censorship actions.
The kind of YT censorship that will be enabled in Pakistan is much more
akin to how China censors its population -- where what will or will not
be allowed to be seen in any media is carefully chosen and restricted to
promote the government line and muzzle dissenting points of view.
I absolutely understand the pragmatic realities of having to obey laws
in those countries in which Google chooses -- voluntarily -- to operate,
but I find the newly announced and apparently Google-endorsed government
controls over YouTube content in Pakistan to be extremely disturbing,
and a horrific precedent for other countries going forward.
Everyone everywhere who is concerned about the responsible exercise of
free speech should be alarmed at these developments.
--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
I have consulted to Google, but I am not currently
doing so -- my opinions expressed here are mine alone.
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