While I tend to focus my attention on the rampant corruption and immoral behavior pervasive in these United States, it is quite clear that similar levels of oligarch thievery and parasitism are manifest throughout the globe. Hence the worldwide bull market in government attempts to censor political speech on the internet (in Canada they like to censor scientists).
In their latest transparency report, Google has announced that total government requests to remove content, i.e. censor, increased 26% in the second half of 2012 compared to the first six months. The chart below is not encouraging.
From The Guardian:
Governments made a record number of requests for Google to remove political content in the last half of 2012, the search giant said on Thursday.
The number of official requests for content to be removed jumped 26% in the final six months of 2012 compared to the start of the year, according to the latest Google Transparency Report. Google received 2,285 government requests to remove 24,179 pieces of content – an increase from 1,811 requests to remove 18,070 pieces of content that the company received during the first half of 2012.
Requests were made to pull videos from YouTube, delete blog posts onGoogle’s Blogger service and to remove items from Google search, making them harder to find.
In a blog post, Google said: “As we’ve gathered and released more data over time, it’s become increasingly clear that the scope of government attempts to censor content on Google services has grown. In more places than ever, we’ve been asked by governments to remove political content that people post on our services. In this particular time period, we received court orders in several countries to remove blog posts criticizing government officials or their associates.”
In Russia, requests to remove content leapt from six in the first half of 2012 to 114 in the second half, after a law was introduced that allows authorities to blacklist a site without trial.
Putin keeping it classy.
Full article here.
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger
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