Google is <i>not</i> donating to Charlie Hebdo. A fund not managed by Google that Google has to pay into as a result of being fined by the French government is giving the money to help ensure the continuation of its publication.<p>From article: "The press innovation fund was set up in February 2013 to settle the dispute between Google and the French government over whether the internet group should pay to display news content in its search results. Financed but not managed by Google, that money will go to support the survival of the weekly."
Bravo. In the face of continued pressure to make free speech a little less free here in the U.S. and around the world, it's on the U.S. and its citizens to protect free speech and/or show their support for those who have been silenced around the world.<p>If Google does that by donating some money, the message is still very clear and, at least from me, quite appreciated.<p>Freedom is never free, and human life, sadly, seems like the ongoing and unending price.
I know it would be inflammatory, but I can think of an extremely provocative Google doodle "cartoon" that would put the cat amongst the pigions and make a statement about Google's position on free speech in this particular matter.
Wonderful.<p>What a tragedy. While there are many tragedies happening recently, it's great to see how the world reacted to this, but still underscores how poorly the world reacts to other incidents like the recent slaughter of 2,000 people in Africa by Boko Haram.
France has been a Google v. the traditional press ground zero for some time [1]. One hopes the press will react to Google's gracious move positively. I expect denouncements.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jan/21/france-google" rel="nofollow">http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jan/21/france-goo...</a>
The Guardian has announced that they are donating £100k to Charlie Hebdo [1].<p>[1] <a href="https://twitter.com/arusbridger/status/553298181568884737" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/arusbridger/status/553298181568884737</a>
You can also subscribe to the magazine in the US through Amazon, although it's $186.25 a year: <a href="http://amzn.to/17n94Hc" rel="nofollow">http://amzn.to/17n94Hc</a>
I think we all agree that this support is very heartwarming and meaningful but also makes one think who's donating to all the drone strike victims for whom not only freedom of expression but freedom is existence is continually threatened?<p>I agree that empathy is obviously not a zero sum game but find that it's also unfortunate that the media's subtle nudge on public sentiment is tipping an already unbalanced situation into more unbalance.
Google could of course also put one of Charlie's "controversial" cartoons on its front page. The one with Mohammed crying and saying "it is hard to be loved by idiots" seems relevant.<p>No?<p>This is how censorship works: the threat of violence already limits what even the biggest and strongest "champion of free speech" can do.
Url changed from <a href="http://www.twcc.com/articles/2015/01/08/g/google-is-donating-300-000-to-charlie-hebdo?cid=cm_gglchr_nw_cdn_dt_ag_101224" rel="nofollow">http://www.twcc.com/articles/2015/01/08/g/google-is-donating...</a>, which points to this.
No-one deserves death or prison for speech/art.<p>That said, someone explain to me how mocking people's beliefs brings positive change in this world.<p>I don't get the point of satire. It just makes people who already agree pat themselves on the back and the people you are mocking will double down to spite you. It's not intellectually clever, it is just bullying in another form.<p>You want people to change without war, then you need dialog. Satire is not dialog, it is a one-way street.
Interesting figure. In Google-land, why $300K and not $1M?<p>I don't want to say that it's not a lot of money, I'm just wondering how someone arrived at this sum.
Islamists are consistently in the running for stupidest worldwide, they are their own worst enemy. They seriously could not be more damaging to their cause. Pretending that these acts have nothing to do with Islam will be the death of the left and The National Front are now electable.
It's awful what happened to them . But they are racist/bigot cartoonists . Imagine if someone attacked Rush Limbaugh it would be bad for freedom of speech but it won't change that he's a bad person like these cartoonist.<p>Here are those girls that were kidnapped in Nigeria
<a href="http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--Wj8pQ_7T--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_320/tdc5t2tmvpkfpovubygc.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--Wj8pQ_7T...</a><p>here is black Minister of Justice Christiane Taubira <a href="http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--2Ea5CAgX--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_320/q2ydp3x50xtcektdwz2n.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--2Ea5CAgX...</a><p>Freedom of speech and all that stuff ,but these people are awful