Live Issue... Search engines must pay the price for growing influence

Google’s ‘Don’t be evil’ motto is starting to look a little tarnished in Asia. With Yahoo and MSN, the website has been accused of profiting from advertising that promotes pre-natal sex selection in India.

The iconic online brand is also being forced to release the identity of a blogger named in a defamation suit. The case has echoes of Yahoo’s 2004 disclosure of dissident Chinese journalist Shi Tao’s identity to the Government: a move which lead to Shi’s imprisonment, and widespread condemnation by, among others, the US Congress. In an environment that has, to date, been largely unregulated, the big US websites are finding that - despite the promise of media freedom that their brands often tout - Asia can be complicated. All of the big three are looking to tap into the region’s aggressive online growth without offending either local governments or local consumers.

“It is difficult for search engines to keep up with the increasing variety of long tail advertisers,” says Antony Yiu, search manager at wwwins Consulting Hong Kong.

“Because of the ever-changing online advertising landscape, it becomes very difficult for the operational staff to be aware of what should or should not be allowed.”

The issue has been brought to the forefront by gender-selection ads, which are generally couched in deceptively benign language, making it difficult for highly automated search mechanisms to filter the ads without blocking fully legitimate advertising.

“Search engines are becoming more vulnerable to local activism and being required to follow local laws because the internet in developing countries is no longer a niche phenomenon - it’s a significant part of life, so dominant international players are targets,” explains a Beijing-based source.

According to David Ketchum, chairman of the Asia Digital Marketing Association, India has become something of a test market thanks to the confluence of “a highly mature and lively legal system meeting a developing but lively online community”. It can also be added that the activists targeting the search engines are clearly conscious of the symbolic value of suing global corporations.

What will the implications be for search engines in Asia? “The worst that will happen is a slap on the wrist, and for the search engines to show that they are trying to comply with local laws,” said a source. “India can’t ban search engines - they’re too integrated in society.”

As for the disclosure of blogger identity, the majority of sites have small print permitting the host to disclose details if called on for legal reasons. Another source adds: “There might be a dip in consumer confidence - but people forget quickly. People who are afraid of government crackdowns will use hosts that don’t have a server in their country.”

Regulatory developments in the Asian online space may put an end to the free-wheeling era - but they are also an indication of the growing mainstream importance of online. It also suggests that search engines in Asia are willing to pay the price of doing business according to local laws - regardless of whether morality is on their side.