Search engines asked to protest against cyber censorship

Search engines asked to protest against cyber censorship

Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International have asked the search engine giants to provide uncensored search results for one day next week to protest against the cyber censorship.

Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International had this to say on the initiative: “World Day Against Cyber Censorship is a day to advance and celebrate a free Internet as an open window to the world and denounce the attacks made on the free flow of information online. In the spirit of fostering freedom of expression, we are asking that you do not censor any of your search engines or blog platforms anywhere around the world on this day. We urge you, on March 12th, to champion the vision of the Internet as a free space for everyone, regardless of nationality or geographic location, and fulfill the idea of a truly worldwide Web — even if just for one day. This would send a strong message to all “netizens” – individuals, organizations and states alike – that censorship online is not the only way forward.”

The groups claim that more than two dozen countries are involved in censoring the internet in some way or the other.

Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft and Cisco have been accused in the past of helping governments censor the internet in their countries. China is one of the major examples where internet access is highly censored.