Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft Suppressing Free Speech Online

In lieu of an abstract, below is the first paragraph of the paper. Foreign governments censor the online activity of their citizens. Iran and China are the top two countries who have been known to censor, filter, and block content that contains any sexual, women's rights, and antigovernmental blogs or content. The American Search Engines Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo are helping these governments censor their people, thus limiting free speech and expression. Nothing can be done to stop foreign governments from suppressing their own people, but something can and should be done to prevent American Search engines from aiding these countries. This article is available in The Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Student Research: http://fisherpub.sjfc.edu/ur/vol10/iss1/4 Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft Suppressing Free Speech Online Brittany Alexander Foreign governments censor the online activity of their citizens. Iran and China are the top two countries who have been known to censor, filter, and block content that contains any sexual, women's rights, and antigovernmental blogs or content. The American Search Engines Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo are helping these governments censor their people, thus limiting free speech and expression. Nothing can be done to stop foreign governments from suppressing their own people, but something can and should be done to prevent American Search engines from aiding these countries. Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft Suppressing Free Speech Online The forefathers of America realized the importance of freedom of speech enough to give it a dignified place in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Yet it is a basic right we, as Americans, often take for granted. The citizens of Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Egypt, Cuba, and Belarus are censored by their restrictive governments, especially via cyberspace (Carvajal 1). The two most web restrictive governments with the greatest number of online filters, blocks, and people thrown in jail for free speech online are that of China and Iran. Both countries have been known to throw those who blog against the government into prison for lengthy sentences (Moaveni 2). In particular, China has thrown its fair share of outspoken anti-government, homosexual, and women's rights bloggers in jail after sentencing them in underground trails (Great Fire Wall 1). Surprisingly, the companies helping these governments restrict the speech of their people online are American companies: Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. America is based on democracy; yet three of its largest and most influential internet search engine companies are helping to limit free speech around the globe (U.S. Web Giants 1). Voices Being Silenced in Every Hemisphere American Internet companies, such as Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo, should cease aiding foreign governments in the censorship of internet websites, and they should do so as soon as possible. Since the internet has become more user friendly and widely available, people all over the world are able to access the World Wide Web. Sometimes the internet is the only source of valuable information that is readily available. In over 13 different countries including two of the biggest online censoring perpetrators, China and Iran, the number of journalistic stories on the internet far surpasses the number of printed stories (Wu 541). This demonstrates how censoring and blocking internet web sites, including news sites, would leave many people in the dark; an uniformed, unaware, and suppressed public results. Enjoying the freedoms of nearly unlimited information access, Americans can type any word in a search engine and uncover thousands of informative web pages pertaining to that user's topic of choice. Whether it is different political views, women's activism, gay and lesbian blogging, or just information on sexually transmitted diseases, online information is literally at our finger tips. However, China's internet filters and censors block all sites containing Chinese government opposition, gay and lesbian information, and sexual content. The blocking of all sexual content websites does not pertain to just porn sites. The Chinese government literally blocks all sites with the word "sex" residing in the text. Gay and lesbian bloggers have been thrown in jail for "the perversion of the Chinese internet with liberal and immoral ideas." Similarly, in Iran, gay and lesbian individuals have been prosecuted for creating blogs about their homosexuality (Tsui 70). Targeting certain individuals for voicing their opinions through the internet suppresses and attacks these citizens' freedoms immensely. In many of these countries, not everyone has computer or internet access at home. Therefore, internet cafes are exceedingly popular and widely used. Because of the large