Google helps build trade case over censorship

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    Date: 
    16 June 2010

    Google Inc is working with U.S. and European officials to build a case that would argue Internet censorship acts as a trade barrier, a top company executive said Friday.

    Google shut down its mainland Chinese-language portal earlier this year over censorship concerns and a cyber attack it said it traced to China.

    China has the world's largest number of Internet users and while the market has boomed, Beijing has kept a tight grip over sensitive content on subjects like politics and ethnic unrest.

    Robert Boorstin, Google's director of corporate and policy communications, said the company is working with the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the State Department, Commerce Department and European officials to build a case to take to the World Trade Organization.