Search engine colossus Google has urged US officials to treat internet restrictions as barriers to international trade, the Associated Press has revealed.Google is calling on the US government to help fight online censorship, which it claims acts as a non-tariff trade barrier for firms dependent on the free flow of information.
Andrew McLaughlin, Google's director of public policy and government affairs, said: "For Google, censorship constitutes the single greatest trade barrier we currently face.
"We're not interested in forcing the US Constitution's First Amendment on other countries.
"Rather we would like to see the federal government take to heart the interests of the information industries and treat the elimination of unwarranted censorship as a central objective of our bilateral and multilateral trade agendas in the years to come."
Google revealed that McLaughlin had previously met with US Trade Representative (USTR) officials and USTR spokeswoman Gretchen Hamel had positive words for the global internet firm.
"If censorship regimes create barriers to trade in violation of international trade rules, the USTR would get involved," she commented.
Google has previously been criticised by human rights groups for agreeing to censor its Chinese website.
Meanwhile, the company has also revealed its anger over proposed legislation in Germany, which will see an end to anonymous email accounts.
The search giant is threatening to drop its Gmail service in the region as a result.
"This whole initiative is a bad idea", a spokesman for Google in Germany said.
