The Implications of Google Restricting Access To Anti-Islam Film 727
ideonexus writes "While the decision has been a footnote in most news stories, the Washington Post is raising the question of what it means that Google can shut down access to the anti-Islam film in countries where that film has sparked riots, something the American government cannot do thanks to our First Amendment. A popular meme in the Information Age is that the Internet spreads democracy by enabling citizens to organize and speak out, but we forget that much of that speech is now hosted by third parties who are under no obligation to protect it."
Much of that speech? Try 'All' (Score:4, Informative)
All Internet 'speech' is hosted by third parties, if you go far enough up the chain. Even if you avoid Youtube etc., and post a video/article to your website, someone can complain to your webhost and get your hosting yanked. Colocate or own a blade in a datacenter? Datacenter owner can yank you. Use Akamai or another CDN? They can yank you. If they're getting DDoSed because of 'speech' on your site, they'll find an excuse in their EULA to justify dropping you.
Now let's say you own a datacenter. Your BGP peers can disconnect from you, stranding you from the Internet. If you find a webhost that cares about free speech, people can jump over them and get their provider to disconnect the entire webhost (this has happened before).
P2P infrastructure depends on peers wanting to connect to you. If you're seen as 'toxic' then noone will.
Re:If you think (Score:5, Informative)
http://youtu.be/1RagKWM8ldk [youtu.be]
Libyans demonstrate against embassy killing (Score:5, Informative)
Re:have you seen it? (Score:4, Informative)
You think it's only religion that "gets a pass"? Get real. We've had entire countries be invaded to eliminate free speech against atheists representing an formally-atheistic agenda--remember the USSR?
Secondly, please explain the basic underpinning of your ethical complaint from -your- worldview. Without reference to -theistic- ethics, how is it a problem for Islam or Christianity, as numerically-dominant subcultures, to simply outright kill every last one of you and thereby pursue a very-viable survival strategy to maximize the success of our DNA? Even the slightest valid basis for a complaint, derivable from Darwinian Naturalism, that doesn't parasite off of ethical norms entirely provided by the people you're attacking, please.
"You can't justify violence." Er, why exactly, according to -you-?
That is a very "limited" view of the subject... (Score:4, Informative)
Why "religion" ? You make it sound like all religions have their followers pull this crap, when in reality ... it's only one of them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_violence [wikipedia.org]
All religions are absolutist philosophies, with very specific ideas of good and evil based not on real life but on imaginary properties proscribed by their own scripture.
As such, they are all destined to clash with the real world sooner or later.
When that happens, there is really no choice for someone who's high on religion - you're either on the side of god, angels and good or you're on the side of evil.
And evil, as we all know, must be vanquished. Man's law be damned. We're talking higher power here.
Abortion clinic bombers don't think that they are killing doctors - they are just doing god's work, eliminating the child murderers.
Re:If you think (Score:4, Informative)
And that is why it's smart that Google is trying to pull this down. This beyond "free speech" and the "yellow journalism" from ALL the actors is starting real wars and real killing.
Obviously, the cat is out of the bag, but at least Google can stop GOOGLE'S resources from being used to throw more fuel on the fire.
This is kind of an Islamic "Tea Party" thing where the far right wing has got something they can use against their OWN governments. The new governments in these countries are trying to be responsible... The "right" wants to push further right than the dictators ever did. This is their power grab.
This is like how the GOP trots out gay marriage, abortion, and second amendment, while thumping the Bible... Because there is no political gain in working for everybody to get along when we mostly agree.
Re:Should Google host Bin Laden's messages? (Score:4, Informative)
Uh, they are [www.news.va]. I mean, unless the Vatican isn't "Christian" enough for you.