FC: Google quietly deletes 100+ controversial sites from search results

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-963132.html

   Google excluding controversial sites
   By Declan McCullagh 
   October 23, 2002, 8:55 PM PT

   Google, the world's most popular search engine, has quietly deleted
   more than 100 controversial sites from some search result listings. 
                                                                         
   Absent from Google's French and German listings are Web sites that are
   anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi, or related to white supremacy, according to a
   new report from Harvard University's Berkman Center. Also banned is
   Jesus-is-lord.com, a fundamentalist Christian site that is adamantly
   opposed to abortion.
   
   Google confirmed on Wednesday that the sites had been removed from
   listings available at Google.fr and Google.de. The removed sites
   continue to appear in listings on the main Google.com site.
   
   The Harvard report, prepared by law student Ben Edelman and assistant
   professor Jonathan Zittrain and scheduled to be released Thursday, is
   the result of automated testing of Google's massive 2.5 billion-page
   index and comparing the results returned by different foreign-language
   versions. The duo found 113 excluded sites, most with racial overtones.

   "To avoid legal liability, we remove sites from Google.de search
   results pages that may conflict with German law," said Google
   spokesman Nate Tyler. He indicated that each of the sites that were
   delisted came after a specific complaint from a foreign government.

   [...]



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