Main focus of Thursday, February 25, 2010

Hard times for Google

Google is increasingly coming under fire in Europe. While the EU Commission investigates complaints from competitors, the Internet giant is also being accused of violating people's private sphere. Europe's press views the company's development with a critical eye, but warns against attempts at censorship.

ABC - Spain

The complaints of three companies about allegedly anti-competitive behaviour prompt conservative daily ABC to criticise Google's free distribution of media content: "Even if the search engine company insists on its formal arguments: making the content of digital media available to users free of charge is much more than just adding links to news sites. After all Google can make money by promoting certain links that are then logically in a better position than others. It is not legitimate to make money from the editorial work of others - which consists in selecting, processing and evaluating the news and which naturally entails the media investing human and financial resources - without giving anything in return." (25/02/2010)

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Süddeutsche Zeitung - Germany

Among other things Google's Streetview service shows 360-degree panorama images of city streets. The left-liberal daily Süddeutsche Zeitung calls this an attack on the private sphere, and welcomes political intervention: "Once everybody's darling, Google has become increasingly unloved in its second decade. ... With its Buzz service the company has shown that it puts technical achievements above its customers' privacy, and it's the same with Streetview. Certainly, many people won't object to their house being viewed from the outside on the Internet. But many others will. Google pays too little attention to such concerns, casting opponents to Streetview as sticks-in-the-mud. But much information is too significant to be put in the hands of a single company. Unfortunately the competition can't get its act together. In such a situation it's right for politics to intervene." (25/02/2010)

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Scene Digitali - Italy

In the trial over a video on YouTube that showed a handicapped youth being bullied, three Google executives have each been given six months' suspended sentences by a court in Milan. This ruling sets a dangerous precedent, writes Vittorio Zambardino in his blog, Scene Digitali: "For a number of reasons Google has become a troublemaker for its competitors. But the 'economic' antipathy should not lead to anti-Google administration of justice or anti-Google laws. Politics and the legal apparatus are seeking ways to bring the novelty of the Internet, which is first and foremost ... a social novelty back into familiar existing territory. But the web can't be forced to comply with existing norms. ... The digital society is a society of free people who are sent to prison when they commit crimes. But they should neither be censored ... nor forced to exercise self-censorship." (25/02/2010)

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Les Echos - France

The growing criticism of Google is directly related to its innovative ideas and its fabulous success, writes the business daily Les Echos: "By definition an innovation is a beneficial rupture, a small miracle for consumers. Who would deny that the life of every individual changed after the appearance of this extraordinary search engine? From that moment we have no longer been alone in the immensity of the Internet. We find our way accompanied by an efficient and intelligent guide. ... If Google had wanted to remain the good Samaritan of the Internet it should have remained a voluntary service like Wikipedia." (25/02/2010)

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All available articles from » Philippe Escande

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