Flickr censors Germany, suffers backlash - Propeller.com

Thanks, Fabienne. It's interesting to see that most of the protest has come from German users. Perhaps it's because of the stronger emphasis on freedom of speech and political democracy.

Comment: Do you think the Japs tell thier...

HMMace — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 04:04:18 EDT

Do you think the Japs tell thier kids about the Japanese rape of Nanking?? Or how they slaughtered the Koreans??..Isn't that "censership?? How they kept our soldiers in 2 foot square boxes, not long enough to straighten thier legs?? whats changd in thepast 100 years?? Its hell to be so old with such a good memory..

Comment: Tolchock: I saw some Korean messages...

Fabienne — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 20:58:13 EDT

Tolchock: I saw some Korean messages today in the protest posters but not nearly as many as the German ones. I also saw one Singaporean asking for answers in the help forums. The German population has been the most outspoken on this issue, at least in the English language help forums and as far as protest photos are concerned.

Comment: Fabienne, do you know if there...

Tolchock — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 19:26:04 EDT

Fabienne, do you know if there are similar protests from Singapore, HK and Korea users?

Comment: Censorship scares. It was not...

Macondo — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 10:35:21 EDT

Censorship scares.

It was not clear to me how to avoid such censorship.

Comment: Thanks for the insight Fabienne!...

mossback — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 09:49:08 EDT

Thanks for the insight Fabienne! I would hate to see Yahoo cave in to censorship the way Google did in China. The pressure on the freedom of the Internet is growing every day. I remember one my Tech team back in 1995 when we were doing our first corporate website tell me that "today the Net is as free as it is ever going to get, it will only go down from here." He was so correct!

Comment: Mossback: I don't believe this...

Fabienne — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 08:54:49 EDT

Mossback: I don't believe this is a Yahoo legal team issue but just a software issue. I have contacted Flickr's PR team and am waiting for a response.

Comment: All entities, whether governments,...

mossback — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 08:45:09 EDT

All entities, whether governments, companies, organizations, poltical parties, or whatever instinctively move towards censorship. This is just one more example of a company trying to "read the tea leaves" that local laws might require and then somehow "beat them to the punch" to avoid legal problems. Germany has some weird laws regarding what you can and can't read about, think about, or whatever based on their experiences in the 1930s and 40s. I suspect that the outcry will lead to some sort of court ruling to help clarify it. It is interesting that you can look at all the porn you want, but you can't go to a site that is openly Anti-homosexual. I travel to Germany a great deal and all ISP providers in Germany have certain sites or types of sites blocked by law. I am proud of the US for its laws that allow us to even discuss this openly. You can't discuss censorship in some European countries, or should I say it would be unwise to do so if your name is attached.