The online world got more interesting when recently the search engine giant, Google changed the tagline on its Palestinian homepage from “Palestinian Territories” to “Palestine”.

The change came after regular and persistent efforts by the Palestinian Authority, who wrote to international companies including Google to replace “Palestinian Territories” with “Palestine”.

It started when the UN Generally Assembly upgraded the Palestinian status to “non-member observer state” last November. The observer status will now allow Palestine to be involved in UNO’s activities, which is seen as a big achievement for the Palestinian cause.

Political uproar

As expected, this new development sparked a diplomatic uproar in the international political arena, especially among the stakeholders who are working hard to find a peaceful solution to the Palestinian issue. Israeli officials took a very strict stance on this issue as expected.

"I think that Google’s decision from the last few days is very, very problematic," Deputy Israeli Foreign Minister Zeev Elkin, told Israel's Army Radio.

"When a company like Google comes along and supports this line, it actually pushes peace further away, pushes away negotiations, and creates among the Palestinian leadership the illusion that in this manner they can achieve the result."

According to the Jerusalem Post, Elkin went one step ahead and wrote a letter to Google's CEO Larry Page, insisting that the company backtrack on this decision and meet the Israeli authorities to discuss the issue further.

"Google is in essence recognising the existence of a Palestinian state," Elkin wrote. "I would be grateful [if you could] reconsider this decision since it entrenches the Palestinians in their view that they can further their political aims through one-sided actions rather than through negotiating and mutual agreement."

Palestine on the virtual map

On the other side of the bridge, Palestinian authorities welcomed the change and considered it a step in the right direction;

"This is a step in the right direction, a timely step and one that encourages others to join in and give the right definition and name for Palestine instead of Palestinian Territories," Sabri Saidam, adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, told the media.

"Most of the traffic that happens now happens in the virtual world and this means putting Palestine on the virtual map as well as on the geographic maps," he added. Sabri also demanded that Google Maps should show the Palestinian Territories as occupied by Israel.

The Google narrative

Google took a very professional stance on this issue. Google spokesperson Nathan Tyler told the media:

"We consult a number of sources and authorities when naming countries. In this case, we are following the lead of the UN, ICANN [Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers], ISO [International Organization for Standardization] and other international organisations."

This is not the first time Google has found itself in the middle of a geo-political dispute.

Back in 2010, a Nicaraguan army commander cited a demarcation boundary on Google Maps and used it to justify a raid on a disputed area along the border of Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Google’s dispute with the Chinese government over censorship of search-related content is not going to be resolved anytime soon.

Similarly in Pakistan, Google’s famous video sharing social website YouTube is facing a blanket ban for quite some time now. Google, along with other tech giants such as Apple and Facebook, have used their influence on the local American government to pass public bills.

Google’s political influence on the American trough goes back to 2006, when Google registered its Political Action Committee (NetPAC) with the US Federal Election Commission.

The creation of such a committee was the first step in making corporate donations to election candidates, which in turn will safeguard Google’s interest in the American Congress. Within a span of a few years, Google has become a major player in Washington.

Google is said to spend a large amount of money on lobbying, not only in the United States but in different regions of the world including Europe. The story doesn’t end here; Google is also known for hiring corporate communication executives with an influential background in order to safeguard its interests.

When asked about NetPAC and the company’s relationship with politicians and world leaders, Ricardo Reyes, Google's senior manager of global communications and public affairs, maintains that the company will not follow party lines but will focus on specific issues that affect the internet and therefore the business.

"We started this NetPAC in order to be able to support office-holders and candidates who share our vision of promoting and preserving the internet as a free and open platform for information, communication and innovation," he says.

"Google has thrived, thanks to the opportunities of the free market so we believe it is important to look at policymakers as they make decisions that impact our users and businesses."

Google isn’t the first company that uses money or influence for its business. With the increase in regulatory scrutiny, over 5.4 million US dollars were spent in the first three quarters of 2011 for political outreach, which has doubled in comparison to 2010. Apart from open funding, Google is said to often employ subtle and pervasive means to exert its influence.

Donations, fellowship programs, and conferences are a few examples of how the company has established a network of ties with social activists, academic institutions, advocacy organisations, public intellectuals, bloggers and journalists. These groups and individuals using their individual capacity, safeguard Google’s interests in public debates and policy matters relating to the internet.

Google’s Chairman Eric Schmidt, in one of his interviews with Washington Post admitted to two variations of lobbying: One is “where you pay an ex-senator to get the current senator to write a sentence into a bill,” he says. The other way, which is Google’s preferred way, is “to lobby based on ideas.”

In 2011, Google announced 6.3 million US dollars in funding for Institute for Internet and Society in Berlin, at a crucial time when most technology companies were struggling with strict privacy laws and regulations enacted by the German government. Interestingly, a year before that, in October 2010, the company also co-hosted a conference at the Central European University in Budapest.

The aim of the conference was to promote free speech, transparency and ideas that appeared quite promising and innocent. The real agenda of the conference was to make sure that platforms such as Google are not held liable for the content they host. Similarly in the US, the internet giant mentors online activists through its fellowship program and pays them a stipend to work with groups that work on internet regulation.

Technology companies or Superpowers?

Google, Microsoft, Facebook and other non technology companies will always invest to safeguard their local or international interests.

Corporate entities like Google and Facebook are extremely influential, sometimes more powerful than some countries. This can be attributed to their strong influence on global users, the content they host and the browsing patterns they track.

How it will influence international and local politics remains to be seen, but the world behind the closed doors of their conference rooms has changed dynamically.