Google refuses to remove police brutality videos

A US law enforcement agency asked Google to take down videos showing police brutality, according to the Huffington Post.

Google's response? Sorry but no.

This is why Google rocks. Now mind you, apparently the US government has requested Google remove 757 videos in 2011 and Google did removed 63 per cent of them. Although it appears they did so in accordance with defamation laws, which sounds reasonable to me (Google can't be asked to break law on behalf of its users after all).

Whether it's favouring freedom of speech, or I guess in this case, freedom of video, or its standing up to China, I'm always impressed by how Google seems to make its choices in favour of freedom and the every day man (even if that means banging heads with the powers that be - from law enforcement to the Chinese government).

I don't know if it's a great day or a sad day when Google becomes more essential to democracy, freedom and transparency than the US government itself.

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