An artist painted a giant 404 error message in Italy to protest Google
The Sun Magazine
Friday MAY 22nd, 2020
FIRST CASE OF ARTISTICAL CENSORSHIP BY GOOGLE CORP.
In the small city of GAETA, Italy, a giant 125m (471 ft) wide mural by French street-artist MTO has been silently censored by Google CORP. Is this the first case of artistic censorship on our good old Google Earth?
This is the imagined headline and lede written by French artist MTO in the description to his latest work, “We Live On Google Earth,” in which he criticizes how much control Google has gained over the world’s information and art.
Last year, Google announced it would begin capturing images of street art from around the world. On the surface, it seems like a good idea: most street art is by definition ephemeral, and the project in theory gives anyone anywhere a chance to see it.