LONDON, ENGLAND -- "Google's policies, in effect, aid and promote the distribution of unrestricted libel right across the Internet. With individuals and companies alike suffering the consequences, dotWORLDS believes that immediate action needs to be taken to halt the damage that is being caused.
Brian Retkin Director of dotWORLDS asks whether such irresponsible and reckless behaviour is grounds for Google's exclusion from participation in the FCC Wireless auctions and whether Google should now be prevented from direct access to personal mobile phones?
Only yesterday in a shocking report shown on the British television program Panorama, Ms Rachel Whetstone of Google, during a rather unsympathetic interview about the plight of children threatened with violence, appeared to insist that it was everybody else's responsibility (except Google's) to monitor brutality, bullying and any other unlawful activity on Google's own websites. It seems the protection of the young does not get much of a rating on Ms Whetstone's or Google's list of priorities.
Unbelievably during the same program, Google's management were given clips of illegal activity that had been uploaded on to one of their websites "YouTube". Google's considered response was that the content - which showed children handling guns and attacking police cars - was acceptable subject matter and that furthermore, Google would neither remove nor delete it.
Says dotWORLDS, "In our own complaint against Google, we have for years tried to persuade them to act properly. However, there seems little incentive for Google or other search engines to clean up their act. At the end of the day, they are still raking in the "pay-per-click.
Of course Google are aware that any of the content they publish on their websites may be complete and utter nonsense, as is acknowledged in Section 14, subsection 2, part (c) of Google's own Terms of Service":
14.2 (c) In particular, Google, its Subsidiaries and Affiliates, and licensors do not represent or warrant to you that: any information obtained by you as a result of your use of the Services will be accurate or reliable
As well as the providing the ability to deliver intimidating and threatening "data" unchecked to almost anyone on the Internet, Google now want to send "data" directly to hundreds of millions of people directly to their mobile phones. Says dotWORLDS, "people are getting worried".
With around twice the amount of lobbyists in Washington as anybody else and with access to mind boggling amounts of funding, it seems that in matters of slander and defamation, Google is in danger of building a global conduit of harm that is unrivalled anywhere.
So the question is, should Google's plans for access to your personal mobile phone be brought to a halt until Google put their own house in order. Unfortunately whilst uncertainty persists, the damage spreads. Still, firms like dotWORLDS are continuing their fight to redress the balance.
Says dotWORLDS "If Google can't or won't monitor themselves, then eventually others will have do the job for them. The rules are already starting to change".
###
