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Arab Countries Boycott Google And YouTube… The Search Engine

Boycott Google and Youtube

It’s heating up all over the Islamic World these days regarding to an offending short film called “Innocence of Muslims” that mocked the Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.).

The low-budget film has been produced and hosted recently on YouTube in the name of “freedom of speech”.

Activists called on 1-month boycott of Google and all its services hoping they can cause a huge revenue loss to Google, and hoping that Google shares the would see a decline.

Organizers said they:

” expect that Google will lose about $210 million in revenues if Internet users in the Arab world boycott its search engine and that its stock price will drop.” (Source)

It looks like there is a big respond -from what I see- on Facebook and especially Twitter: #BoycottGoogle, however there is also people who do not agree with the boycott and describe it as a waste of time. (I personally agree with the second group).

Google and YouTube Boycott

Google and YouTube Boycott started yesterday September 24th and will ends today 25th, 2012, and the main reason is that Google refused to the request of removing the anti-Islam film, which proof the YouTube double-standard community guidelines.

Google should also know that the end date to this double-standard has just been defined and therefore compliance is a most for Google and its services to continue to exist as a reputable and responsible business! (Source)

I personally (disliked and reported) the film because I think that it tells 99.99% lies, and I couldn’t agree more with Hillary Clinton when she described it as a disgusting film.

Google’s respond to the boycott

In response to the boycott, a Google spokesperson told Al Arabiya English on Monday:

“We believe in everyone’s right to express themselves freely, but at the same time, we know that users are aware of the role Google plays giving them universal access to information.” (Source)

Interesting results in Google Stock

The really interesting thing is that Google stock hits all-time high yesterday, and it’s still going even higher today:

It seems that Google received an unexpected huge benefit from the boycott campaign!

Internet Usage in the Middle East

The explanation for this is Internet Users across the Arab countries are around 3.3% of the World Internet Users according to InternetWorldStats.com:

The number of boycotters could stretch across the entire Muslim world however, with Muslims in Western and Asian countries also taking part, according to social media users angered by the film. Arabs and Muslims account for about 8 percent of internet users in the world. (ICT industry expert who spoke to the Jordan Times).

Perhaps putting a dampener on the boycott, the analyst forecasted that the planned move “will not have an impact on Google,” adding that less than 0.5 percent of Google’s profits are generated from the Arab and Muslim world.

The Question is…

Well.. actually I have more than one question…

Why you care for a stupid low-budget film that won’t change any fact?

Why would you cut a valuable source of information while you actually need it?

Why don’t you try to find other solutions rather than the boycott that doesn’t work?

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