Parliamentary Secretary for Citizenship and Reforms Julia Farrugia Portelli has called for a ban on recreational Googling, after the search engine showed a government statement relating to her was misleading.
After footage of a passport-selling agent boasting that he was friends with both Joseph Muscat and Farrugia Portelli came to light yesterday, the government released a statement saying that the only relationship they had was when they were at school together over 30 years ago.
However, when searching on Google, one can find photos of the three together at events in recent years.
“I believe Googling should be heavily regulated and not a free-for-all like it is now. People shouldn’t be allowed to just type things into search engines whenever they feel like it,” the junior minister said.
“This kind of reckless online fact-checking has been proven to negatively effect people’s ability to believe everything the government says.”
Farrugia Portelli floated the idea of a state-approved search engine, where results would be vetted by a regulator before being shown to the public.
“I think they have something similar in China. You don’t hear about anyone questioning the government there.”
