Google’s high profile battle with the Chinese government has been well documented. But the search giant has faced other censorship issues in various parts of the world as well as business and legal decisions on whether it should make certain content available.
As Datamation reports, Google established a set of principles related to censorship and free expression several years ago, but it’s had to adapt in face of legal challenges and certain government policies.
In the wake of Google
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s controversial decision to flaunt Chinese authorities and stop censoring results at its Google.cn page, the search leader on Monday attempted to explain both the scope of the issues it sees in play and its own policies.
Google said China is “the most polarizing,” but hardly the only example, of government attempts to control content. Since 2002, the number of governments that censor has grown from about four to over 40 today, according to the Open Net Initiative.
In the case of China, Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) had threatened to pull out of the China market over censorship and a series of cyber attacks on its systems and on human rights advocates that Google said originated from China, possibly by entities connected with the government there.