Source: Google
According to a news report on CNET (2008), recently Google and Yahoo are facing challenges by Argentina judges to censor search results on celebrities and public figures through their search engines. Since last year, internet users in Argentina have been experiencing difficulties finding accurate information about prominent individuals in the country because only shortened results were found. Search engines are responsible for the content of other web pages.
However, this rule should not be enforced. Federal law in the United States generally mentions that search companies are not held accountable to web contents (Condon, 2008). Website administrators themselves should be responsible if the information provided is considered an invasion of privacy.
Search engines are only performing their most fundamental role, which is helping users to search for specific information easily by providing links to different websites. They interpret words typed in the search bars and displays results of users may be looking for. This is a form of intertextuality. Schirato and Yell (1996, p. 110) define intertextuality as “the process of making sense of texts in reference to their relations with other texts”.
Without search engines, internet users will never be able to navigate around the entire cyberspace with no boundaries. I will definitely feel lost. Therefore, I hope that our Malaysian government will not decide to censor search engines in the future like what Argentina did.
References:
Condon, S 2008, ‘Argentine judge: Google, Yahoo must censor searches’, CNET News, viewed 12 November 2008, <http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10094597-38.html>.
Schirato, T & Yell, S 1996, Communication and cultural literacy: An introduction, ‘Chapter 5: Framing contexts’, Allen and Unwin, New South Wales
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