Sri Lanka: Did Google assist the banning of websites?

JDS News
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The Sri Lankan government has banned ten websites with the assistance of the Google search engine.

Google says that it is the first time that it has received requests from Sri Lankan authorities to block websites.

'For the first time, we received one or more content removal requests' from Sri Lanka, says Google.

Link to Google Transparency Report

With this unprecedented move, readers in Sri Lanka will not be able to access websites blocked by Google.

Neither the Sri Lankan government or Google has revealed the names of sites removed.

Although the Webby Award winning search engine has published that it fully acceded to the Sri Lankan government request, reasons for its decision has not been made public. Webby Awards are the leading creative honours for digital media where nominees and winners are chosen by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.

Google's revelation of the blocking follows the Sri Lankan government's controversial announcement on the 5th of November calling for all all websites reporting on Sri Lanka to be registered with the country's media ministry.

The announcement seen as a step towards web censorship drew anger from media rights organisations around the world.

Several websites critical of the government as well as those reporting on war crimes allegations have been already blocked from reaching the public in Sri Lanka.

Lankawaynews, the official website of the main opposition UNP, Sri Lanka Guardian, Paparasi news and Sri Lanka Mirror were blocked on the same day that the call for registration was made.

Earlier, Tamilnet, LankaeNews and Lankanewsweb was banned by the Sri Lankan government.

© JDS