TURKISH GROUP ACCUSES GOOGLE OF LIMITING FREE SPEECH

FoxNews.com
Tuesday, August 11, 2009

The Turkish Coalition of America said Google pulled its ads without
giving the group a chance to respond to the accusations made by the
Armenian National Committee of America.

A Turkish advocacy organization is accusing Google of limiting free
speech after the Web search leader suspended the group’s ads in
response to complaints by an Armenian-American group that the ads
were "morally reprehensible" for denying a genocide occurred in the
Ottoman-Armenian conflict of a century ago.

The Turkish Coalition of America said Google pulled its ads without
giving the group a chance to respond to the accusations made by the
Armenian National Committee of America.

A Google spokesman told FOX News that it does not accept ads "designed
to stir up hate or advocate against a protected group." The spokesman
also said the company does not allow ads for Web sties "that suggest
revisions to history or attempt to revise history against the interests
of a protected group."

"So you can imagine an ad by a Nazi group that said the Holocaust is
a myth," the spokesman said, offering another example of an ad that
would be rejected by Google.

The Turkish Coalition, or TCA, objects to Google’s policy.

"The notion that there is a Google-accepted version of history is
extraordinarily disturbing," the group said in a statement.

"Google has failed to distinguish between advocating an idea in an
historic controversy, which the TCA does, and advocating against a
group, which the TCA does not," the group said. "This notion strikes
at the very core of the First Amendment free speech rights."

The Armenian National Committee of America initiated its online
campaign against the ads in May, asking supporters to urge Google to
stop hosting genocide denial ads placed by the Turkish Coalition.

"Ask Google to live up to its guiding principle of ‘Don’t be Evil’ by
refusing to profit from an organization seeking a platform for their
historically inaccurate, morally reprehensible and deeply offensive
genocidal denial campaign."

The group said search terms such as "Armenian Genocide," "Armenia" and
"Armenian" typically spawn a Google ADWords link that reads either :
"History, Propaganda" or "Learn Armenian Atrocities." Both directed
users to the Turkish Coalition’s Web site that it says features
"extensive content denying the Armenian Genocide."

The Republic of Turkey disputes the use of the term "genocide" to
describe the decimation of the Armenian population of the Ottoman
Empire during and just after World War I.

David Saltzman of the Turkish Coalition told FOX News that his group
is not against any group and lamented that anyone who disputes a
genocide happened in 1915 is "accused of immorality and criminality."

The suspension of ads, Saltzman said, is devastating to his group
because it limits its "presence in the marketplace of ideas."

Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee
of America, told FOX News that he was "gratified" that Google decided
the Turkish group’s ads were not "consistent with its values. We
think Google did the right thing."

He added that the Turkish group was just as misguided in trying to
force Google to run the ads as it is in denying the genocide.