Google Video Censors Iraq Footage

Last month it was China, this month it's the United States that a servile Google is taking a bow to.

It seems that the search giant's video service is blocking US viewers that try to see a piece of Iraq footage that the rest of the world can access without any problems.

The footage shows US military personnel detonating a roadside bomb in a controlled explosion. It's accessible from everywhere except the United States and U.S. citizens - who bear the human and financial cost of such improvised weapons - are presented with the following message: "We're sorry but the provider of this video has not authorized
Google to display this video in your location."

It seems though it's not Google that's doing the censoring, the big red-faced Oops from The Reg (the uploaders) being responsible with the decision not to make the clip available to U.S. Internet users.

The US media's reluctance to relay the human cost of the war has been fiercely criticized. And Google's willingness to censor innocuous video footage suggests that rather than being a challenge to the media hierarchy that so many utopians wish it to be, Google accepts everything it is asked for without saying a thing. The recent argument with the officials stirred by the company's denial to hand on the results of its searches and a list of users was clearly pointing in another direction. On the other hand, it's not that surprising, if one would have followed closely Google's post-IPO history.