Google vs.

Civilization: 5 Google Products

Hated By The World

Google is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly,
hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think a million
hits a day is impressive, but that’s just peanuts to Google.

Google has a huge number of products, ranging from the mundane

to the extreme: you can plan your month with Google Calendar or
you can view millions of DD boobs in a fraction of a second with
the classic Google Search Engine. The point is, with Google, you
can do anything.

That is, unless you are living in one of the many countries that has
a beef with the company. Various Google products, and sometimes
even all of Google, have been banned in many countries. We regret
to inform you that, if you are living in these countries, you are no
longer a free person.

5.
Gmail

Hated By:

Iran

What Happened?

On February 10th, the day before the anniversary of the Iranian

revolution’s anniversary, Gmail was banned by the Iranian
telecommunication agency.
It wasn’t temporary, either. According to the Wall Street Journal,
the ban is to be permanent – i.e. forever.

But Why?

Apparently, there were to be major protests in Iran on the

anniversary of the country’s revolution. Such a banning of an
important internet feature was supposed to be a way to prevent the
protest from happening. Our sources don’t tell us whether or not it
worked, but that isn’t completely relevant. The point is, the Iranian
government clearly thought that banning Gmail would work.

Yes! I so knew I could convince them to ban it. Ali, you owe me
twenty rial.

Why It’s Ridiculous

Gmail is not the only email service in the world. In fact, the top
two email providers are Yahoo! Mail and Windows Live Hotmail.
They have the most users. It would be slightly less ridiculous if the
government had banned both of those, but no, they chose Gmail.
Further, banning the spread of messaging the day before the protest
would occur would probably not stop the protest from happening.
Maybe if it was done a week or two in advance it would work, but
everyone probably already knew where to go by the time the email
service was banned.

4.
Google Street View

Hated By:

Austria, and pretty much all of Europe

What Happened?

Throughout 2008 and 2009, countries all across the world (but
mostly in Europe) complained about Google Street View, a service
that lets people see a street as if they were standing on it
themselves. But, these complainers decided that they didn’t want
Street View in their country. So, either temporary or permanent
bans were placed on the Google service, making it that much more
difficult to view nude beaches in France.

Aww, shucks.
But Why?

Because it broke privacy rules.

No, seriously – that’s their reason. They didn’t want photos being
taken of public places because there were some people that didn’t
like pictures showing up on the internet. As per Wikipedia,
“Privacy advocates have objected to the Google Street View
feature, pointing to views found to show men leaving strip clubs,
protesters at an abortion clinic, sunbathers in bikinis, cottagers at
public parks, people picking up prostitutes and people engaging in
activities visible from public property in which they do not wish to
be seen publicly.”

Also, this.

Why It’s Ridiculous

Note that, above, we say that people didn’t want photos being
taken of public places. A public place is, by definition, a place
where you can go out and, you know, be. So whereas people are
against there being photos taken of these locations, they are
perfectly alright with others being able to see, hear, smell, taste,
and touch the things located there.
But okay, so people don’t want others to know that they are
soliciting prostitution. Well, then don’t go out when they are
taking pictures. There is only one day that pictures are taken of an
area, and it probably will be updated as often as a satellite
photograph, i.e. once every couple of years or so.

3.
YouTube

Hated By:

Turkey

What Happened?

In early 2007, Greeks and Turks were fighting over the internet,
something which probably resembled two four-year-olds arguing
over who won the Special Olympics that year. Nonetheless, the
bickering devolved into attacking YouTube videos.

Namely, Greek videos “reportedly accused the founding president

of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, of
homosexuality”. So, Turkey decided to ban the whole of YouTube.

How many Halo players will be deprived of this amazing piece of

art?!
But Why?

According to the Times Online, it is illegal to insult either Ataturk,

Turkey itself, or just Turkishness. Despite the ridiculousness of
this law, it seems to hold, because prosecutor’s office in Turkey
took action because of these “nationally threatening” videos. So…
what did they do? They prevented all of YouTube from being
viewed in Turkey. If it was our decision, we would have just nuked
the damn Greeks.

Why It’s Ridiculous

The fact that free speech is limited so much in Turkey is

astounding to Western readers. But, in the Middle East, it
shouldn’t be nearly as surprising. What’s amazing, however, is that
Turkey essentially removed one of the least used websites for
attacking varying governments.

Removing /b/ would have made a lot more sense, but, despite the
attacks on Turkey after the act, Turkey still allowed /b/ in their
country. Don’t get us wrong, /b/ should be removed everywhere,
but free speech is free speech, and should remain as such.
/b/ is the black hole of the internet.