Google Says No To Australia's Request To Censor YouTube Videos

from the good-for-them dept

After Google announced plans to no longer censor content in China, we wondered if they would do the same in other countries, like Australia, which was pushing for much greater censorship online. So it’s nice to see that Google is pushing back in Australia and telling the government that it will not voluntarily censor YouTube videos based on Australia’s classification. YouTube already has rules in place to block certain types of videos, but it feels that Australia’s rules go too far in blocking what could just be political speech that the government disagrees with. What’s really amazing (and worrisome, if you’re Australian) is that the government referred to the rather oppressive censorship of the internet done in China and Thailand as good examples of how Google should censor the internet in Australia.

Filed Under: , , ,
Companies: google

Rate this comment as insightful
Rate this comment as funny
You have rated this comment as insightful
You have rated this comment as funny
Flag this comment as abusive/trolling/spam
You have flagged this comment
The first word has already been claimed
The last word has already been claimed
Insightful Lightbulb icon Funny Laughing icon Abusive/trolling/spam Flag icon Insightful badge Lightbulb icon Funny badge Laughing icon Comments icon

Comments on “Google Says No To Australia's Request To Censor YouTube Videos”

Subscribe: RSS Leave a comment
12 Comments
Black Patriot (profile) says:

I swear the politicians here in Australia aren’t even listening to ANY of their constituents, because everyone has been complaining about their new censorship laws and they still seem to be going through with them. About the only good thing is there should be an election around the end of this year, so maybe we’ll be able to send a message with our votes (I’m not holding my breath).

tim says:

Re: Re:

of course they arent listening to us. Its because there was such a dead even split in the senate that the only way the government can get any laws pushed through is to give Stephen Fielding epic blow jobs, and because he is a family first conservative douche, his bargaining revolves around making society fit his incredibly gay view of things. He is the sole reason we are having this debate and eventual epic fuck up that is the Australia Internet Filter (aka single point of failure aka lets hit it with some bots and turn off australias internet). Because you know it will go through, no matter how much we dont want it. And then it will break 3 or 4 times, cut us off from the world, be proven to stop absolutely no child porn, and then in 10 years or so they will turn it off again. The government will hide the 30 billion dollar bill, and then tell us it was a great success, and old people will believe them, and vote them back in. Welcome to australia.

James Jetta says:

Australia The Police State

This government rules buy bullshit it should do something about the corruption within the police than worry about them being exposed tell me how is this government protecting us by introducing censorship and and spying on its own people this idiot who wanted to give the prince Phillip knighthood is the same person who claims that we have one of the best police forces in the world. This coming from the only country in the world that the police investigate them self’s the AFP commissioner who heads the internal investigation on them self have investigate the public and media claims and has said “we have investigated our self and found nothing wrong”

Add Your Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Have a Techdirt Account? Sign in now. Want one? Register here

Comment Options:

Make this the or (get credits or sign in to see balance) what's this?

What's this?

Techdirt community members with Techdirt Credits can spotlight a comment as either the "First Word" or "Last Word" on a particular comment thread. Credits can be purchased at the Techdirt Insider Shop »

Follow Techdirt

Techdirt Daily Newsletter

Ctrl-Alt-Speech

A weekly news podcast from
Mike Masnick & Ben Whitelaw

Subscribe now to Ctrl-Alt-Speech »
Techdirt Deals
Techdirt Insider Discord
The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...
Loading...