A small city in Israel sues Google for false information

Officials in “Kiryat Yam”, a small city in northern Israel, have filed a complaint with police against the Internet search engine Google. The city argues that one of Google’s programs, Google Earth, gives viewers false information that offends the city’s image.

Those who see “Kiryat Yam” on Google Earth are told that the city was built on the ruins of an Arab town from which innocent civilians were expelled. In fact, officials said, the city was built by Holocaust survivors on land that was completely barren and had not been settled in the past. The false information was placed as part of a deliberate attempt to hurt the city’s interests, they said.

It is important to note that Google is not the one who posted the comment on Google Earth. One of the most popular features in the program is that users can contribute their comments on specific places on the map.

The information on Google earth was posted by a user by the name of “Thameen_Darby“, a Palestinian living in Jenin, who took on himself to post comments on hundreds of Arab villages that were vanished in 1948 when Israel was declared a state.

Update:

My friend Paul who writes on networkworld inform me that he sent a mail to Google,
asking what they have to say, and i must admit their answer was really surprising…”Not our fight”…
you can read it on networkworld.com.