Visit Indian Travel Sites
Goa,
Kerala,
Tamil Nadu,
Andhra Pradesh,
Delhi,
Rajasthan,
Uttar Pradesh,
Himachal Pradesh,
Assam,
Sikkim,
Madhya Pradesh,
Jammu & Kashmir
Karnataka
|
Web firms have more power over free speech than governments: Experts | The controversy over an anti-Muslim movie, which sparked
violence in the Middle East, has highlighted how internet companies, most of whom are based in the United States, have become global arbiters of free speech, weighing
up on complex issues that are traditionally performed by courts, judges and, occasionally through international treaties, experts have said. "Notice that Google has more
power over this than either the Egyptian or the US government," the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Tim Wu, a Columbia University law professor, as saying. "Most free
speech today has nothing to do with governments and everything to do with companies,"
he added. After the anti-Muslim movie trailer spread like fire on the web and
YouTube, breaking out protests in Egypt and Libya, Google was forced by White
House officials to block access to the video in some of the Middle East countries.
However, days later, controversy over the 14-minute clip from The Innocence of
Muslims was still roiling the Islamic world, with access blocked in Egypt, Libya,
India, Indonesia and Afghanistan, the paper said. In temporarily blocking the
video in some countries, legal experts say, Google implicitly invoked the concept
of ''clear and present danger'', which is a key exception to the broad first amendment
protections in the US, where free speech is more jealously guarded than almost
anywhere in the world. The internet has been a boon to free speech, bringing access
to information that governments have long tried to suppress. Google has positioned
itself as an ally of such freedoms, as newspapers, book publishers and television
stations long have, the paper said. But because of the immediacy and global reach
of internet companies, they face particular challenges in addressing a variety
of legal restrictions, cultural sensitivities and, occasionally, national security
concerns, it added. ''Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter now play this adjudicatory
role on free speech,'' said Andrew McLaughlin, a former top policy official at
Google who later worked for the Obama White House as deputy chief technology officer. |
|
|
|
|
|