Google's Board is Anti-Anti-Censorship

Google did not explain why its board recommends shareholders vote down the anticensorship proposal from the Office of the Comptroller of New York City, which is a trustee of pension funds that have invested in 486,000 Google shares.

A representative for Google did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment for this article.

The proposal would prohibit Google from storing user information it collects in countries that restrict Internet access -- making it harder for local authorities to get at the information.

The proposal also calls for Google to inform its users when it does cede to government requests to censor its search results or other features.

"Technology companies in the United States have failed to develop adequate standards by which they can conduct business with authoritarian governments while protecting human rights to freedom of speech and freedom of expression," the proposal reads.

To a large degree, the Google board's stance illustrates the complicated position on censorship the company has as it expands worldwide.

On the one hand, censoring Internet search results runs afoul of Google's core goal of organizing and disseminating all of the world's information. Yet in order to do so, it says it must abide by varying degrees of censorship worldwide.