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Google helps build trade case over Web censorship
John Poirier
WASHINGTON
Fri Jun 11, 2010 5:09pm EDT
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A construction worker walks past a logo next to the main entrance of the Google building in Zurich May 25, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Arnd Wiegmann
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Google Inc is working with U.S. and European officials to build a case that would argue Internet censorship acts as a trade barrier, a top company executive said on Friday.
Technology | Media
Google shut down its mainland Chinese-language portal earlier this year over censorship concerns and a cyber attack it said it traced to China.
China has the world's largest number of Internet users and while the market has boomed, Beijing has kept a tight grip over sensitive content on subjects like politics and ethnic unrest.
Robert Boorstin, Google's director of corporate and policy communications, said the company is working with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the State Department, Commerce Department and European officials to build a case to take to the World Trade Organization.
Such a case could help U.S. tech companies seeking greater access to Chinese consumers while furthering the U.S. government's human rights agenda.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her technology advisers have promoted Internet freedom as a basic human right.
"Google believes very strongly, as do other companies, that censorship is a trade barrier," Boorstin said during a panel discussion on Internet censorship hosted by the Media Access Project, a Washington-based public interest group.
Boorstin said Google wants to demonstrate that censorship results in fewer search pages, and that limits the capacity of the company to enjoy fair trade and the ability to operate on a level playing field with competitors such as China's Baidu Inc.
"Our goal is to maximize free expression and access to information," he said. "This is a very important piece of business for us."
The United States is studying whether it can legally challenge Chinese Internet restrictions that hurt Google and other U.S. companies operating in China, but the top U.S. trade official said in March that direct talks with Beijing might yield faster results.
A WTO case over Internet censorship would be the first of its kind and could take years to be resolved.
Last month a top European Commission official said China's Internet "firewall" was a trade barrier and needs to be tackled within the WTO framework.
Dutch-born Neelie Kroes, EC vice-president who is also in charge of Europe's digital agenda, said the firewall was a trade barrier as long as it blocked communication for Internet users, preventing the free flow of information.
Google's Boorstin said the company's attorneys and advisers are working on making the best case possible to present to the U.S. Trade Representative, but he warned it would not be an easy task and would not be resolved soon.
"It's got to be pretty solid and it's not quite clear yet exactly how solid we can make it," he said.
"I would not be looking for a conclusion in the near future," he said. "These kinds of things take a long time."
(Reporting by John Poirier; editing by Tim Dobbyn)
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See All Comments (4) | Post Comment
Jun 11, 2010 7:38pm EDT
Good luck with that Google
Storyburn_has
Report As Abusive
Jun 11, 2010 8:20pm EDT
mmm, now remind me of the TV stations that the USA has just blocked from being shown in the USA
diddums
Report As Abusive
Jun 11, 2010 11:57pm EDT
Actually, facebook was doing very well in China before the Chinese blocked it. Facebook is what most expats use to talk to their families back home. There is certainly a case against certain internet censorship; facebook is a textbook case.
The reason they block facebook: to support Chinese domestic sites like xiaonei. Why do they block twitter: to support the domestic company of QQ. Why did they attack google and refuse to investigate the criminal hacking activities against that company: they were supporting the domestic criminal company Baidu.com.
China is and has always been a protectionist economy.
blahhhhhh
Report As Abusive
Jun 12, 2010 2:07am EDT
re:blahhhhhh
I don’t think Twitter can beat QQ even it is not blocked from China. QQ was founded more earlier than Twitter and had hundreds of millions users in China, it is to say “no one can live without QQ”
malo
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