Susan Wojcicki, the Chief Executive Officer working for Google’s YouTube said that the search engine giant considers free speech as a “core value” while commenting about the Russian government’s order to take away material related to the political opponents.
Alphabet Inc’s Google and Apple Inc. were talked about much before the general elections in Russia that these companies gave into Kremlin demands. YouTube removed some videos of Navalny on request from the government.
When enquired about removing these materials, Wojcicki stated as per Bloomberg News that it still regards free speech as a core value, however, when they have to work with the government, many things must be considered, irrespective of whether they are local laws or things happening “on the ground”, as said to Bloomberg Television by Wojcicki. As such, there will be always multiple considerations.
However, Wojcicki did not comment when asked about requests from the Russian officials. Google, however, does not disclose how often governments ask to take down YouTube footage or how it responds to the same.
Many US politicians, few employees of Google, and human rights activists or groups have criticized the decision of the company since the company has always manifested itself as a “champion of internet freedoms”.
Wojcicki, according to Bloomberg News, also said that decisions of YouTube are made keeping in mind compliance with government requests, and based on several various factors.
Susan Wojcicki also said that it is not that every request from the government makes sense for them to honor, however, in certain circumstances, they will honor the same in that particular country.
In the year 2010, Google pulled up services related to its search engine and other services from mainland China citing concerns over censorship.
