CARNAL NATION

Google's long-standing motto has always been "Don't be evil." But if Google is itself not evil, then it at least has shown itself willing to flirt with evil, sometimes go for drinks with evil, and on occasion even go home with evil for the night, eventually slipping out the back door in the early morning while evil is still asleep. The latest example of this is the revelation, thanks to Women on Waves and the International Women's Health Coalition, that Google AdWords has been blocking advertising for abortion services in 15 countries since a September, 2008 update of policy. Abortion services ads have been disallowed, according to a Google representative, in Germany, Poland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, France, Italy, and Spain.

As you may note, the list of countries is so diverse as to be almost entirely arbitrary; the laws in the countries range from draconian to fairly liberal, and although Google has 'fessed up to the blockage, they haven't been forthcoming about how or why those countries were chosen.  Lori Adelman of the IWHC reprints her correspondence with Google's representative (with the individual's name removed) on Feministing. In response to Adelman's inquiry about why Google chose to disallow ads in those particular countries, the representative replied cryptically that "I can share that we conducted the review and made the change to ensure our policy was fair, up-to-date, consistent with local laws and codes of practice." The rep also says that religious associations are allowed to place ads about abortion "in a factual and campaigning way" if the ads seek to "educate and inform" without shocking graphic images or lanuage. 

IWHC has posted an action alert on this issue, asking their supporters to email press@google.com and let them know that you oppose their policy; if you're feeling nasty, perhaps even remind Google that (and may the Internet gods forgive us for even typing these words, never mind posting them for the world to see), that Microsoft's Bing search engine might start to look appealing if this is how they're going to treat the marketplace of ideas. A sample letter is available at the link.