14 DAY TRIAL // Google caused quite an uproar last week when it announced that it intended to stop censoring search results on its localized version in China. Its decision is commendable, yet, even as it takes up this fight, Google censors its results in a number of countries, including some European ones, to abide to the local laws. One country which has been especially adamant in filtering content on the Internet is Australia, a move which Google has been critical of in the past. Yet, it has now agreed to remove a link to an Encyclopedia Dramatica entry which some found racist and offensive.
As the story goes, aboriginal man Steve Hodder-Watt came across a rather disturbing web page when searching for the words "Aboriginal and Encyclopedia" the entry for 'Aboriginal' on Encyclopedia Dramatica, a wiki dedicated to 'alternative' views on any number of topics. It's highly satirical in nature and often goes to extremes to shock its readers. Linked in part to the Anonymous group of the infamous 4chan, its open and unrestricted nature leads to entries regularly blurring the lines between satire and racial slurs. As further evidence of its apparent evil nature, Google lists 666,000 results for the 'encyclopedia dramatica' query.
Hodder-Watt, understandably offended by the unsavory descriptions of his people, tried to modify the page but was blocked from doing so, presumably because he was removing the offensive content which is pretty much everything on the page. He then took the next logical step, contacted a lawyer and went after Google, for the sake of the children if nothing else. "One of the most offensive sorts of racial vilification you could possibly find," said lawyer, George Newhouse, described the page. "It portrays indigenous Australians in the most unsavoury light possible, and you wouldn't want a child stumbling across it," he added.
Google, not one to go outside the boundaries of local laws, acknowledged its responsibility and removed the page from its search results. As a matter of policy, instead of the link, Google.com.au now notifies its users: "in response to a legal request submitted to Google, we have removed 1 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read more about the request at ChillingEffects.org.”
"Google received a complaint about a website that allegedly violates the Australian Anti Discrimination Act. Accordingly, Google removed the website from Google.com.au," the page at ChillingEffects.org reads. Australian children can finally feel safer and sleep better at night reassured that "what you don't know won't hurt you." Doing the same search on Google.com, obviously, returns all the results, including the entry on Encyclopedia Dramatica so, maybe, they're not that safe after all.
Thankfully, the danger should soon be avoidable altogether as Australia plans to implement a thorough and expensive Internet filtering system to make sure no unwanted material even enters the country. If the censorship laws come in effect in Australia, Google won't have to concern itself with this type of problem anymore, as 'racist content' is on the list of content that would be blocked. And anyone who has ever heard of an Internet proxy will be able to surf the web just as unrestricted as ever.
