Google earns $6 million from Pakistan annually, yet pays no tax to the government according to Dr. Kamil Tarar, who an IT expert and research editor for TelecomPlus. He recently submitted a petition against Google to the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take suo moto notice of this “illegal activity” by Google’s search engine and its other affiliated websites like YouTube. Another charge against Google is that Pakistan had damage to its property which cost it in millions all because of the insulting video that Google refused to remove from YouTube.
However, not being registered in Pakistan allows Google to avoid serious charges. This is also one of the reasons that since Google does not officially operate in Pakistan, it cannot be asked to remove contents from its search engine or affiliated websites. Never the less, according to Google’s own annual transparency report, it has shown that it received many requests from Pakistan prior to this year for removal of content from sites like YouTube and other online sites because the material incited hatred and terrorism.
The banning of YouTube currently is due to a kind of a protest Pakistan is involved in till the removal of the blasphemous video takes place. Google has been branding its country specific websites, like Google Pakistan, after the domain names officially used by the country.
The petition claims that Google has no legal right to do so and hence, either should get registered or face charges. It is strange that this very fact came to an IT expert’s notice now after so many years of Google’s unofficial operation in this country. Pakistan government might take up a drastic action of banning Google itself. Other Google officials and representatives in Pakistan are now seriously thinking about taking this into account.
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