News <\/p>\n
By Michael Kan <\/p>\n
March 31, 2014 05:38 AM ET <\/p>\n
IDG News Service - A group of activists are hoping to appeal a U.S. judge's ruling that treated the censorship on Chinese search engine Baidu as free speech. <\/p>\n
In making the ruling, District Judge Jesse Furman equated the censorship to a newspaper exercising its editorial right to publish what it wants. But Stephen Preziosi, lawyer for the eight pro-democracy activists, said in an email Saturday that the comparison was wrong, and that the court had a \"fundamental misunderstanding\" of how search engines work. <\/p>\n
The appeal is planned to be filed later this week, Preziosi wrote. <\/p>\n
In 2011, the eight activists filed a lawsuit, claiming that Baidu violates U.S. free speech laws by censoring pro-democracy works on its search engine for users in New York. <\/p>\n
But last Thursday, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed the lawsuit, and ruled that Baidu had the right to create a search engine that favors certain political speech over another. <\/p>\n
Newspapers have to manage costs and spacing on the paper in selecting what they publish, but search engines operate by indexing all content on the Web, Preziosi said. A In Baidu's case, the company worked to \"proactively\" exclude the pro-democracy works from its search engine, he added. <\/p>\n
\"This constitutes the denial of the right to freedom of speech,\" Preziosi said. <\/p>\n
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The rest is here: News By Michael Kan March 31, 2014 05:38 AM ET IDG News Service - A group of activists are hoping to appeal a U.S. judge's ruling that treated the censorship on Chinese search engine Baidu as free speech. In making the ruling, District Judge Jesse Furman equated the censorship to a newspaper exercising its editorial right to publish what it wants Continue reading
\nActivists to appeal U.S. ruling on Baidu censorship<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"