Another leak from inside Google shows how the company justifies censoring users, which continues the trend of big tech companies trying to silence opinions they disagree with.
An 85-page document called “The Good Censor” leaked from within Google and published by Breitbart, shows the considerations Google makes when deciding to censor users.
The title of the document should be enough to terrify anyone. The title implies that censorship could be a good thing.
According to Breitbart, “an official Google source said the document should be considered internal research, and not an official company position.” Maybe so, but that’s not very comforting.
In the document, Google justifies censorship online by outlining how users are “behaving badly.”
One of the bad behaviors prominently listed is “trolling.”
“By provoking arguments and flaming disruption, trolls threaten valuable debate and infuriate users. The problem has become so rampant that several websites have even resorted to removing comments entirely,” the document states.
It seems like Google is afraid of users freely debating online.
The beauty of the internet is the ability to debate with any random lunatic who has any random viewpoint while having the freedom to get up and walk away from your computer at any point.
If someone is “infuriated” because of a differing opinion, that’s not a reason to censor the internet. The “infuriated” party can just walk away from the computer. It’s quite simple.
Google also makes the claim that “rational debate” is diminished when “authoritative voices” have an equal weight as everyone else’s voices.