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Fatwa CenterWorking in IT company that provides a search engine
Question
Assalaamu alaykum wa rahmatullaahi wa barakaatuhu. I work for a big IT company (like Google). One of the main goals of this company is to provide good web-searches for users. However, a lot of internet-users are looking for pornography, so in some indirect sense, if we are improving web-searches in general, then we are helping some people to better find pornography. I have to make two more comments in order to ask my question: 1. This company is like Google, and it does not provide pornography, but it provides web-searching, which can be used to find haram things. 2. I do not work directly in the web-search department but rather in the automatic speech recognition department (we are improving speech recognition by computers, which is then used for web-searching). The question is: Is this work prohibited or not?
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
It is permissible for you to work in the mentioned company, Allaah willing.
The search engine is among the used matters, and one may look for what is lawful or what is forbidden, as is known.
Since this is the case, it is permissible in principle to work in such company and provide such service; it is only prohibited in the case when one knows or predominantly thinks that those who want this service are looking for what is forbidden only.
Allaah knows best.
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