Google Complies with Law, Excludes 'controversial' Sites

YDdraig writes "To conform with some French and German laws, Google has removed listings for over 100 sites which it believes to be anti-abortion, pro-Nazi, white supremacist or anti-semitic. They're not keen to talk about it either, saying merely: 'As a matter of company policy we do not provide specific details about why or when we removed any one particular site from our index.'" Noted from Declan's articles: This is Google.de and Google.fr, and is done to be in compliance with those countries laws. Because, of course, not being able to talk about something makes it less attractive right? And drugs being illegal makes it less attractive for kids too, right? *sigh* Update: 10/24 13:55 GMT by H : Thanks to Declan for providing the linkage to his News.com original story which has more links then the ZDNet UK one.

Well the french are offensive...

[phunhippy]

Well since the french are offensive in general.. maybe we should simply ban all references to the french on google.com :) except for the links to the "French WWII rifle, never fired, only dropped once"

nice

[Anonymous Coward]

What a great way to silence critics of israel!

Just call em anti-semitic and get em banned from google!

Nice!

Way to get your censor on you zionist bastards!

What you said bulldozing peoples houses and dropping 1-ton bombs on apartment buildings is cruel? You must be anti-semitic!

What you don't think every palestinian is a terrorist? You anti-semitic!

What you don't believe that god personally gave that land to the jews so they can kill whoever they want in order to steal it? You must be an anti-semite!

Woohoo go censor squad!

This just doesn't work!

[Dr. Spork]

I bet you the pages of these idiots got more visits from all the people whose curiosity was piqued by the bad. They must be thrilled to be banned! I bet you there are some Nazi sites and "Holocaust Never Happened" sites and "Bush is Smart" sites that are like "hey, what a rip! How come we didn't get banned! That's bloody favoritism!"

Re:Don't blame google for this

[BlueGecko]

Make it legal to spread nazi-propaganda i Germany etc...

Problem: even if a majority of Germans wanted greater freedom of speech, try to imagine the public outcry if a candidate campaigned on the platform:

Candidate: Und eef I am electet, I vill also leat a coalition to repeal ze anti-Nazi censorship rules in ze constitution, ja?

Even in Germany I have trouble seeing that flying with the voters or the press.

Re:They're all ready slipping down the slippery sl

[operagost]

I am ... but it's for his appearance in Battlefield Earth.

I'd put Hubbard away for that if he was still alive.

Re:Sesame Street Flashbacks

[Alsee]

"anti-abortion, pro-Nazi, white supremacist or anti-semitic"

Why does that song "one of these things is not like the other" from Sesame Street keeping running through my mind?

Those four are all exactly alike, we need to censor them because they all commit acts of speach inciting murder. They all spread lies, and all lies must be censored. We need to create a global Ministry of Truth to handle this.

[Disclaimer: I understood exactly what you meant]

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