Google Voices its Opinion About Internet Censorship by Other Countries to the U.S. Senate [Google (GOOG) Seeks Open Access to the Internet for all as a Human Right through the U.S. Senate]

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Should the U.S. Government make internet freedom abroad part of it’s foreign policy and maybe even consider making it part of the criteria for receiving development aid? That’s what Google would like.

Today Nicole Wong, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel of Google Inc. addressed the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, about Global Internet Freedom and the Rule of Law, Part II. While Google spoke to the U.S. Senate about making internet freedom abroad part of it’s foreign policy, it also attempted to take some of the political pressure off itself and on to the U.S. government. How do the stockholders feel about this? Well… since the news Google stock (GOOG) has risen slightly, so it seems (at least so far) that Google’s investors are on board with this idea.

The hearing also included a number of other tech companies who provided testimony and who also do business in China; however, the hearing wasn’t centered around China alone. What spurred on this development? Some suspect that this announcement has stemmed from security and censorship issues with Iran and Google’s recent Google-China feud, which may have inadvertently opened up Google eye’s and made it assess internet censorship around the world. It is also abundantly clear that Google is tired of having it’s services blocked by other countries because of censorship issues and wants something done about it.

It is too soon to tell if lawmakers will lean on countries to allow their citizens ‘open’ access to the internet. Right now everybody is still watching and waiting for an official response, it is likely that no matter what the decision, lawmakers will have to carefully roam the terrain to avoid offending the internet community. As for Google, there is no confirmation either way to tell us if Google will still be willing to do business with countries that censor the Internet, or not, but if this changes it is likely that Google will make any new policies known.

It is likely that a change as big as making internet freedom a human right, will take time since not all countries can even agree to offer their citizens freedom of speech, much less the right to open access to the internet. But as the internet continues to grow and evolve, we may see it’s influence on other countries become more and more apparent.