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Google The Almighty Buck Technology

Google Donating $11.5M To Fight Modern Slavery 302

walterbyrd writes "Google announced today that it will donate $11.5M to groups dedicated to ending modern day slavery. 'In what is believed to be the largest-ever corporate grant devoted to the advocacy, intervention and rescue of people being held, forced to work or provide sex against their will, Google said it chose organizations with proven records in combating slavery.'"
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Google Donating $11.5M To Fight Modern Slavery

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  • Easy to do (Score:4, Insightful)

    by GameboyRMH ( 1153867 ) <gameboyrmh AT gmail DOT com> on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @01:53PM (#38373388) Journal

    Delist every high-fashion apparel producer from Google Search, that will put a big dent in it.

    • Re:Easy to do (Score:5, Insightful)

      by rainmouse ( 1784278 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @02:16PM (#38373780)

      Delist every high-fashion apparel producer from Google Search, that will put a big dent in it.

      I used to live in an extremely bad area in Glasgow / Scotland where drugs and prostitution were everywhere. Over the road from me was a homeless hostel and round the back of my apartment block was a methadone clinic and prostitutes stood on street corners for blocks in every direction. I've seen dealers injecting heroin into girls who looked around 12 years old before sending these kids out into the streets to pay for it while the police turned a blind eye (they had some kind of experimental tolerance policy in place between 9 pm till 3 am). Trust me, there are many worse things these children can be forced to do rather than making trainers or iPads for a living. Apparently human trafficking can be just as horrific as drug addict child prostitution and if Google pledges to charities that can actually help prevent some of this stuff then I say good for them.

      • by Mashiki ( 184564 )

        The problem is when the government doesn't enforce the laws, or doesn't break the cycle creating a systemic problem. You can almost bet that there's a serious flaw with the crown per local policy that the law not be enforced. Personally if I lived there, I'd be up in arms over it. The fact that people aren't, is simple moral decay.

      • From your story it looks like all your place needed is a change of Constable (whatever is your local police head)

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by WillAdams ( 45638 )

          That's why I prefer to live in a community where the Sheriff is a locally-elected official.

    • by Xanny ( 2500844 )

      Now, I am as against slavery as the next liberty loving nutbag, but can /. not have double standards on google search?

      A few weeks ago they took torrent sites off instant search and there was massive outcry. Technically, in most countries using google, most of those sites were breaking law. What they were breaking should not be criminal, but it was still not law abiding to host copyrighted material on torrent sites. And the /. community exploded against it! Hoo rah, how could Google do this, search must b

      • I was half-joking about it, I'd prefer if Google didn't censor any results at all. On the other hand I'd like to see the corporate elite get a taste of their own medicine in terms of search censorship. I find it hilarious when I see cops checking flea markets for counterfeit apparel when they're often produced more ethically than the real thing.

      • Congratulations. I was wondering who would be the first to bash Google in this thread. You win the prize!
    • I want my check Google.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Khomar ( 529552 )

      Actually a bigger dent (and one that would be extremely unpopular... especially on slashdot) would be to put an end to pornography. The correlation between sex trafficking and pornography is very strong as pornography fuels desire for the real thing. For example, you can read this article [catholicnewsagency.com] for references to many government and private studies linking the two. This interview [stopchildslavery.com] with a government official who specialized in sex trafficking was also very interesting.

      The statistics of sex trafficking in America

  • So.. (Score:5, Funny)

    by somersault ( 912633 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @01:54PM (#38373412) Homepage Journal

    Google are fighting to abolish marriage now? Does their evil know no bounds?

  • by 140Mandak262Jamuna ( 970587 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @01:59PM (#38373480) Journal
    Looks like Google is really serious about emancipating people who are enslaved by facebook and twitter.
  • by djl4570 ( 801529 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @02:00PM (#38373520) Journal
    Will this include Chinese political prisoners who are forced to work as defacto slaves?
  • They have their work cut out against the US prison industry.

  • Great news (Score:5, Informative)

    by zppln ( 2058178 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @02:04PM (#38373586)

    This is great news. The fact that slavery is still very much in effect in countries like Mauritania isn't something a lot of people are aware about. Hopefully this will raise the issue.

    • Niger (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Das Auge ( 597142 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @02:51PM (#38374356)
      Right now in Niger, 8% of the population are slaves. That's 1.8 million people.

      Let me reiterate, that's happening right now. Sub-Saharan Africa has the majority of the worlds slaves; and I'm not talking about indentured servants.
  • Legalize it. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Hatta ( 162192 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @02:05PM (#38373608) Journal

    Make prostitution legal and well regulated. You'll decrease the demand for sex slaves. Anyone who claims to care about sex slavery and doesn't advocate the legalization of prostitution is simply not serious.

    • by decora ( 1710862 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @02:23PM (#38373862) Journal

      a lot of criminal gangs infiltrated the 'well regulated' prostitution industry in holland.
      when an illiegal immigrant is brought to holland illegally by gangsters and forced to work in a brothel, the 'regulators' are not going to accomplish much to save her.

      as we see in the US financial system, 'regulated industries' are not always well regulated. regulators are frequently corrupt and/or incompetent. and they have conflicts of interest.

      • When you use "well regulated" in quotes, you give the impression that you do not believe it's well regulated. Fair enough, but to say that poorly implemented regulation means quality regulation isn't the answer is a bit much.

        • by PCM2 ( 4486 )

          On the other hand, because prostitution is at least semi-legal in Holland, there is a lot more transparency into what happens in brothels in Amsterdam (no pun intended). Americans can easily think "there isn't any sex trafficking in my city, it doesn't really exist, those stories are all FUD." When someone from Amsterdam tells you that sex trafficking is a problem in Dutch brothels, on the other hand, you should probably believe them, because the Dutch have been running the great experiment of how to integr

    • You are right, it needs legalising and regulating. Nothing wrong with the concept of prostitution, it's all in the implementation.

      Right now that's what's messed up. Legalise, tax it, regulate and it will be healthier, safer and better for the economy.

    • Make prostitution legal and well regulated. You'll decrease the demand for sex slaves. Anyone who claims to care about sex slavery and doesn't advocate the legalization of prostitution is simply not serious.

      Sex slavery is a much worse problem than what is shown in Hollywood films. It's not limited to cute 20-something girls being forced to service powerful executives in posh locations. The majority of these sex slaves are children, drugged and kept prisoners in slums and secure houses. Do you want to legalize child prostitution and child porn, too?

      • Re:Legalize it. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by PPH ( 736903 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @03:04PM (#38374552)

        Do you want to legalize child prostitution and child porn, too?

        No. I want enforcement to concentrate on these areas.

        Leave the over 18 y.o. strippers alone when they give customers hand jobs in the private booths. The Seattle vice cops are standing in line to sign up for undercover duty. Which entails taking a couple of grand of petty cash (taxpayers money) and buy lap dances until someone fondles their junk. Tough work, but somebody has to do it.

        If adult prostitution was legal, every hooker (of age) would gladly turn in the names of the pimps running kids. After all, they are the competition.

      • Re:Legalize it. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by TheCarp ( 96830 ) <sjc@[ ]panet.net ['car' in gap]> on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @03:13PM (#38374730) Homepage

        Ok, so legalize prostitution and sever ties between the now legal sex trade and the illegal sex trade.

        There is plenty of money to be made in selling alcohol to minors, how many legitimate places are willing to risk their prized liquor licenses over it? They may make mistakes, employees may make exceptions for friends and other shit, but.... outside of those minor incidents, nobody does it as a matter of course. Nobody has a back room for kids to go buy liquor at.

        Now, I know the drug markets more than the flesh but... the paralells are easy to see.

        The average drug dealer is just a user who needed a way to afford his habbit. No matter how honest of a businessman, no matter whether he denies sales to kids, or advices customers when their habbits seem to be going out of control (all things i have seen from real dealers), he still has to worry about being robbed, threatened, or blackmailed. There is no real separation between him and abusive predators.

        There is just no excuse for submerging these people into the criminal underground and leaving them with no reasonable legal recourse to protect themselves from dangerous predators. Thats what it really comes down to. When you make it illegal, you lump all people doing it together, you force them into the same boat as the abusive people. This helps the abusive hide, and gives them victims.

        A legal prostitute has no reason to not report illegal activities, in fact, she has every reason to do it. Do you want her on your side, or do you want her to be just another victim? Thats the real question.

        Do you want to give abusive criminals an ocean to hide in? Or would you want to shrink his world, and leave him fewer places to hide?

        Because in the end, the basic transaction of sex for money, no matter how you feel about it, has no victim. It is nearly invisible, and it is impossible to stop. Why fight it, when its not really the actual problem?

        • We must fight prostitution for the same reasons we supported Alcohol and support other Prohibition, because Sky Fairies insist on it.

    • Not all human trafficking is about sexual slavery (although a lot is). In addition, in countries that are trying to combat it, like the US, there are generally provisions in the law that make it so that trafficked prostitutes can't be charged with a crime if they manage to escape and contact authorities.

      • by TheCarp ( 96830 )

        But doesn't that just give any prostitute the incentive to claim she was being kept as a slave?

        How do you separate out the willing liars from the genuine article? Seems to me registration, licensing, and inspection would do a better job of that than these shortsighted laws.

        But...thats only if you want to solve the problem of slavery...if all you want to do is moralize and throw more people in jail and feel good about "doing something", then these laws sound about perfect.

    • It might also be necessary to abolish poverty, drug addiction, and child abuse that forces kids to run away from home, in order to make sure it's actually consensual.

    • It has been documented that The State can't run a Whorehouse properly so what makes you think that they could regulate the whole industry??

  • But if we start paying them they'll just be wage slaves!

  • So they want to go back to old fashioned slavery?

  • by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @02:20PM (#38373828)

    It is not my intent to diminish the plight of those who are being forced to work against their will and who are getting unwanted sex, but I can't help notice that I am being forced to work against my will every day and I'm not getting any sex. I would appreciate it if Google would throw some of its enormous wealth toward this issue. Many of us have been stuck in this situation for decades, with no hope in sight.

  • by kawabago ( 551139 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @02:22PM (#38373850)
    Mine has stopped working and I need to return it.
  • by Bardwick ( 696376 ) on Wednesday December 14, 2011 @02:26PM (#38373918)
    You get food, shelter, clothing, heating/cooling, an Xbox, a car and a little discretion cash.. In return, you are required to vote for your slave owner...
  • 1) Do i have to give up my "wifes"?
    2) Do robots count?

    • by PPH ( 736903 )

      1) Do i have to give up my "wifes"?

      Legalize polygamy. Monogamy is male servitude.

      (Yes dear. I'll take out the trash just as soon as I've finished this Slashdot post.)

  • Google gives money to fight slavery. And everyone is like "Google is teh Slaver!11" They compare Google making it's engineers work a lot to slavery. They criticize everything Google has ever done, etc. It looks like Google is the new Microsoft; they are always in wrong in Slashdot group-think, even when they donate money to the anti-slavery cause.

    Don't get me wrong. I agree that Google does plenty of bad things and they scare me. I think they are a greedy corporation and they don't take the "Don't b
  • The only way to truly eliminate slavery is to eliminate not only all forms of human prejudice and the desire that some people have to manipulate others, but also *ALL* forms of debt as well, since taking on debt is a form of voluntarily becoming a slave for whatever duration that it takes to repay the debt.

    Good luck with with that.

  • Wait so is google going to help the Movie Visual effects industry in the UK, Canada and the US? 11.5 million. REAALY thats probably less then the operating cost of ONE of the Private jets owned by the top 3 guys at google.
  • ... I'll do it for half that and get the same results.

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