[governance] Google's officer with detention order in brasil

[Ivar A. M. Hartmann]

For those overlooking the key issue in this and similar cases in Brazil, it
is not whether Google wants to secure its holding as a market leader or
ensure its profit. The key issue is free speech.
Shifting the spotlight to Google's corporate interests is the same as
stating that a critique of government restriction of the people's right to
move freely is nothing but corporate lobby by automobile manufacturers. The
fact that some private companies turn a profit from the enjoyment of
certain human rights does not call for a simplistic view.

Now let me just point something out: one of the main aspects of the human
rights discourse in the last six decades has been the realization that
following the law - rules that have been regularly enacted from a formal
point of view - shouldn't be an excuse to violate human rights and dignity.
This is what Nuremberg was all about. In other words, if a human rights
violation is perfectly clear to civil society - as the restriction of free
speech in Brazil currently is - then overlooking that fact and simply
abiding by the law, regardless of what it says, is wrong.
To be perfectly clear, the comparison I'm making is for argument's sake, as
the rights violations in each case are obviously very different in degree
and nature.
But they are human rights violations all the same.
I wonder if 5 years from now we'll look back and condone the actions of
internet corporations that did absolutely nothing against free speech and
privacy restrictions imposed by formally legal rules.

Best,
Ivar




On Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 10:10 AM, McTim <dogwallah at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Fri, Sep 28, 2012 at 4:35 AM, Pranesh Prakash <pranesh at cis-india.org>
> wrote:
> > Carlos Vera Quintana [2012-09-27 00:04]:
> >>
> >>
> >>
> www.lahora.com.ec/index.php/movil/noticia/1101398913/Justicia_electoral_mantiene_orden_de_prisión_contra_directivo_de_Google.html<http://www.lahora.com.ec/index.php/movil/noticia/1101398913/Justicia_electoral_mantiene_orden_de_prisi%C3%B3n_contra_directivo_de_Google.html>
> >
> >
> > Marcelo Thompson of University of HK / Oxford Internet Institute argues
> that
> > the arrest is justified, and might even have been welcomed by Google:
> >
> > http://goo.gl/P47Yh
>
>
> A hyper-cynical  POV.
>
> To a true cynic it reads like teaser to flog his book ;-)
>
>
>
> --
> Cheers,
>
> McTim
> "A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A
> route indicates how we get there."  Jon Postel
>
>
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