Google recognizes Palestine as ‘independent nation’

NEW DELHI: Google seems to have recognized Palestine as an independent nation. The influential technology company last night changed the description of the area from ‘Palestine Territories’ to ‘Palestine’ on www.google.ps, a portal that serves Palestinian people. 

The notion of Palestinian state and its physical boundaries is a controversial topic. But it seems that the Google’s move to term Palestine a nation is influenced by the developments in the United Nations (UN) last year. Despite the objections from “Israel” and the United States, the UN last year recognized Palestine as a “non-member observer state”. India had voted in favor of the proposal in the UN General Assembly. 

Google, a multinational company, in the past has often punched above its weight on certain issues even though they have little to do with technology.

While Google complies with all the local laws across the world, the company, along with other technology firms like Twitter, is also vocal about what it perceives to be the rights of its users. It publishes data on the government requests it receives for removing content from its websites. 

In many cases, Google refuses to take down content if it feels the requests are not ‘justified’. One such example was the controversial film “Innocence of Muslims” that was uploaded on the Youtube last year. Despite requests from several governments, including the US, the company refused to take it down. Though, it did censor the film in some countries.

Source: India everyday

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