NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: Google loses Italy "autocomplete defamation" case + my comments
expecting a wave of copy-cat suits
In Poland, a Mr. Dupinski tires of being identified as "dupa". In Germany, a Mr. Schein does not find "Scheisskopf" funny at all. In England, a Ms. Whorley...well you get the idea...
Ed "Not Janky" Jankiewicz
Google loses Italy "autocomplete defamation" case + my comments http://j.mp/fsvCiO (This posting on Google Buzz)
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http://j.mp/hFIw3o (ZDNET UK)
On Tuesday, lead counsel Carlo Piana wrote on his blog that the Court of Milan has upheld its earlier decision to order Google to filter out libellous search suggestions. These are the suggestions that pop up in Google's search input bar, proposing what the user might be wanting to search for. People searching via Google for Piana's client, who remains publicly unnamed, were apparently presented with autocomplete suggestions including truffatore ("con man") and truffa ("fraud").
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Amongst the many Google-related emailed queries and comments I receive every day, there has been a major up-tick of late in questions related to autocomplete suggestions (and Google Instant).
Many of these have focused on Google's removing (for example) various "torrent"-related terms from the autocomplete lexicon, joining other terms that were considered inappropriate for "suggestions" display, which some senders (inappropriately I believe) equate with censorship).
Others -- like in this Italy case -- are concerned about items that *do* appear in the suggestions (and, via Google Instant, in the displayed "intermediate" results pages during the query entry process).
Since the autocomplete/suggestions mechanism can play an important "discovery" role in the search process, potentially steering users toward queries and results that they might not have otherwise made or seen, this is overall a very complex topic.
So to review, there are parties concerned about terms that are not presented via autocomplete (presumably via manually maintained exception lists) -- and there are parties who are upset about terms that are appearing (normally via automated processes).
I actually have in the works a fairly detailed analysis of issues related to Google autocomplete/suggestions, that is not yet ready for distribution. But I'll mention one key concern from that essay that I know will be present in the final version.
It appears increasingly likely that the evolution of Google's suggestion/autocomplete mechanism, now in tandem with Google Instant, may have inadvertently created a path for outside parties to increasingly demand (via court actions, etc.) the ability to micromanage Google's search results in various ways, particularly in terms of removing results -- not just from autocomplete, but potentially from the main results index as well.
I have long asserted that many of the major battles over freedom of information on the Net will involve attempts to interfere with search engines' algorithmic autonomies. Parties unhappy with the availability of particular material on the Net -- realizing that stamping out all mirrors is increasingly impractical -- are now turning toward search engines as a preferred avenue of attack, realizing that if users can't *find* given material, that's almost as effective (from a censorship standpoint) as if the material weren't available at all.
Those forces who wish to tightly control and regulate information on the Internet are rapidly pointing their cross-hairs at search engines in general, and at Google in particular.
There are associated enormous freedom of speech and other risks for everyone involved.
Much more to say about this later.
--Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org Founder: - Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org - PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein Google Buzz: http://j.mp/laurenbuzz Quora: http://www.quora.com/Lauren-Weinstein Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com