Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: x zanardartamano : Google Earth highlights the 'Nakba'

Google Earth highlights the 'Nakba'
By STEPHANIE RUBENSTEIN
Anti-Israel activity on the Google Earth application has been stepped
up this week, with the message "Nakba - The Palestinian Catastrophe"
now appearing when users scroll over the orange dots that speckle
locations across the entire map of Israel.
Google spokesperson Jessica Powell said on Tuesday that Google has no
plans to restrict the application's content, despite claims that
Israel is being uniquely and malevolently targeted.
"Israel is being specifically targeted. No one else is running a
campaign against a country like this," said Andre Oboler, a post-
doctoral fellow in the political science department at Bar-Ilan
University and Legacy Heritage Fellow at the NGO Monitor watchdog
group.
Some posts on the map of Israel incorrectly state that various cities
are Palestinian towns destroyed during the 1948 War of Independence,
Oboler said. He added that after searching through Google's world map,
he had not found a similar situation in any other country.
Jenin resident Thameen Darby is posting these notes on the
application, as well as links to a Palestinian propaganda site,
Palestine Remembered, which offers more layers of misinformation for
the map of Israel, Oboler said.
When Google Earth is first downloaded, the application's core system
allows for various layers to be available to users. The content found
within the core includes overlays, created by both organizations and
individuals, allowing more detailed perspectives on certain areas.
The orange dots posted by Darby can be immediately found on the map,
while other pro-Israel and corrected postings have to be downloaded
separately, according to Oboler. A user has to actively seek for
another perspective on the map, he said.
"The core layer is what people get when they download and install
Google Earth," Oboler said. "It is there by default. The problem we
have here is that the core layer is being used to promote propaganda,
and this is being done openly and without penalty. If we treat Google
Earth as the primary geographic information tool in the world, having
such propaganda included becomes a problem."
Oboler added that application users should generate truthful content
about Israel, in order to counteract the misinformation and stop the
site from becoming a "pile of spam."
"Google needs to review their policy for the community content layer,
perhaps dividing it up or further restricting it to content about
current significant locations and landmarks," Oboler said.
"Information can also be about the past or the future, for advocacy or
for education. These things are valuable, but belong in separate
layers, preferably ones that are fine-tuned to specific topics. This
would prevent the abuse of the platform, the problem we have now, and
avoid the problem of clutter in the future as the earth is
overpopulated with user content."
Google is aware of the user-generated content and said that the
company is dedicated to free speech and believes that the "debate is
healthy," Google spokesperson Jessica Powell said.
The user-generated commentary from the Google Earth Community is
automatically turned on in order to make information more readily
available to users, she added.
Both Israeli and Palestinian perspectives are posted on the map of
Israel, and there are other places of controversy in the world map
besides the Middle East, she said.
"This layer reflects what people contribute, not what Google believes
to be true," Powell said.
Kiryat Yam is suing Google for libel because the map application
falsely lists the city as being built on the remains of an Arab
settlement, Ghawarina, after the Israeli War of Independence in 1948,
said the city's spokesman Naty Key Zilberman.
Google has not been in contact with the city over the claims, leaving
Kiryat Yam with no choice but to sue, he said, adding that the case
should be ready to submit to the court system in the United States
within a few months.
"[Google Earth] is part of propaganda war, which [Israel] is losing,"
said Gerald Steinberg, political science professor at Bar-Ilan
University and the head of NGO Monitor.
"While we recognize that some may find the user-generated content
objectionable, we are careful to balance the integrity of an open
forum with the legal requirements of local governments," Powell said.
Google removes only features that violate its terms and conditions.
This, she said, is not the case with the posts on the map of Israel.
The company would rather have a healthy amount of debate than place a
limit on the application's content, said Powell.
"At the end of the day, individuals know more about the environment
than Google ever will," she added.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1214726179334&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

 "[Google Earth] is part of propaganda war, which [Israel] is losing,"
interessante. Sta dicendo che Israele sta combattendo una guerra di
propaganda.