Google Under Fire Over Racist Blogs

AcidAUS writes "Google is being accused of refusing to remove racist blogs targeting minority groups in Australia. Google, whose corporate motto is "don't be evil", says it will take the blogs in question offline only if ordered to do so by a court."

Comments

Re:What I'd like to know...

[aussie_a]

what would happen if a (google-based) Chinese blogger runs afoul of the Chinese Government?

Will Google remove the blog?

I don't expect slashdotters to read the fucking article. But at least read the fucking summary.

Google ... says it will take the blogs in question offline only if ordered to do so by a court.

Pretty easy to work out what they'd do in the case of China (especially given their past actions). But I'm guessing you just wanted to bash Google rather then have a serious discussion.

Explained

[brian.glanz]

For all the non-Australians with no idea where the uncovered meat reference came from, an Australian sheikh has just managed to more or less publicly blame scantily clad women for inviting rape, causing an uproar there. Condemnation has been quick; John Major already chimed in to call the comments "preposterous."

Having said that, Google has said content would need to be illegal, e.g. spam related before they would actually remove it. Anyone else read this and hear echoes of user 606117 writing yesterday, "Don't come to Australia"?

Re:greater or lesser evil

[amliebsch]

You cannot say, "Everyone go out and kill a white man."

You are incorrect. You certainly CAN say "Everyone go out and kill a white man," and even mean it 100%, so long as your saying does not create an imminent danger and is likely to do so. (This was settled in Brandenburg v. Ohio.) So, saying it to an angry mob of radicals who you expect to follow your orders - probably not OK. Giving orders to a criminal enterprise - not OK. But saying it as your opinion in a speech, editorial, or yes, on the internet - that is your right as a free man.