Google is being sued by the Christian Institute in the UK for denying the group’s advertisement. The group wanted to place an ad on the keyword “abortion”, but apparently Google’s current policy “does not permit the advertisement of websites that contain ‘abortion and religion-related content’.” The Christian Institute is claiming that Google is violating the Equality Act 2006 by discriminating against religious groups.
The ad itself doesn’t seem to be offensive or deceptive. It would have read: “UK abortion law – news and views on abortion from the Christian Institute. www.christian.org.uk”
This seems odd to me based on Google’s usually unbiased policies. It usually prides itself on being a service provider and being indifferent to the content it’s providing. Granted, this is an advertisement as opposed to a search result, but it still strikes me as a little odd, especially since the policy is so sweeping (‘abortion and religion-related content’ – no requirement for it to be offensive or deceptive at all).
Does this policy make any sense? What if it were the other way around?
