Russia: Google removes Putin critic's ads from YouTube
bbc.com
bbc.com
In this case, it looks like a simple case of complying with local laws to continue to growing their bottom line. It’s why we can’t believe Silicon Valley when they say they want to cultivate discourse and democracy. They don’t. They want to make money. When the two coincide with one another, that’s great. When they don’t, profit is more important than freedom. That’s why we can’t trust private enterprises to act in the best interests of society.
A trivial comparison: would you respect laws of Nazi Germany in 1930s if Internet existed then?
Doing business there, and breaking their laws, isn't right no matter what you think of them.
Out of curiosity, how'd you define "doing business there" in a borderless Internet? Surely Google servers remain in the USA? Would you rely on imperfect client location determination?
No, you don't. Websites are international, and Google could always refuse to comply. They run the risk of being blocked, but that might be preferable to complying with an immoral or unjust law.
> They are a sovereign country and have the right to establish whatever laws they want within their territory.
No. Do you think "sovereign countries" have a right to establish laws implementing the genocide of a minority population? To use torture freely? To murder or imprison people for criticizing the government? To absolutely defer to sovereignty is to either stand by while injustices large and small are inflicted on others, or even worse join in and be complicit in the injustice.
Does anyone really believe they care about serving the general welfare? It's money first, "don't be evil" second, for all for-profit corporations. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just what a corporation is for.
"The laws prohibit political campaigning within 24 hours of an official poll."
We have a similar law in most of Canada, I think. No advertising just before Election Day. In some provinces, the blackout includes the day before an election (Ontario, for example).
Interesting that for national elections, Canada doesn't allow advertising on Election Day itself, but specifically exempts internet ads that were placed before Election Day. So if you uploaded a video to youtube before the blackout, you don't have to remove it.
The question here is whether Google also removed other Russian party ads from YouTube as well.