Argentine Judges Disappear Celebrities From Internet

An anonymous reader writes "Since 2006, Internet users in Argentina have been blocked from searching for information about some of the country's most notable individuals. Over 100 people have successfully secured temporary restraining orders that direct Google and Yahoo! Argentina to scrub the results of search queries. The list of censorship-seeking celebrities includes judges, public officials, models and actors, as well as the world-cup soccer star and national team head coach Diego Maradona. Try it yourself — compare the results for a Yahoo! Argentina search for Diego Maradona (0 results) to a search at Yahoo! Mexico and Google Argentina (both with millions of results)."

Comments

third-person singular simple present?

[Anonymous Coward]

Argentine Judges Disappear Celebrities From Internet

Tomorrow:

Slashdot Viewership Disappears Editors From Headlines

Re:third-person singular simple present?

[DavidR1991]

I think it's supposed to sound like "mobster talk" (a la "sleeping with the fishes") but it fails miserably.

Re:third-person singular simple present?

[sakdoctor]

Slashdot readers is throwing robots at us.

Re:third-person singular simple present?

[a whoabot]

I think it's supposed to be the use of the transitive verb "disappear." Because quite literally the judges disappeared the celebrities from those search results -- no mobster euphemism for killing there.

Re:third-person singular simple present?

[Waffle Iron]

The usage here is appropriate, given that this particular usage was originally coined to refer to government abuses in Argentina and nearby states in the 1970s. As Wikipedia explains:

In the case of forced disappearance the word disappear, which is properly an intransitive verb, becomes transitive. Victims, who are those who have disappeared, or the disappeared, are said to have been disappeared, rather than the more usual have disappeared. The perpetrators have disappeared them, rather than made them disappear.

Re:third-person singular simple present?

[John Hasler]

The usage here is quite inappropriate as those who were "disappeared" in the 1970s were themselves victims of government repression while these celebrities are the beneficiaries thereof.

Re:third-person singular simple present?

[Anonymous Coward]

Argentine Judges Disappear Celebrities From Internet

Tomorrow:

Slashdot Viewership Disappears Editors From Headlines

It's a meme.

Re:third-person singular simple present?

[Waffle Iron]

The usage in this headline is an example of irony. It doesn't have to be an exact match for the original situation.

Re:third-person singular simple present?

[Anonymous Coward]

Indeed.
OED 3. trans. To cause to disappear.

Self-righteous grammar fascists - it's a lot more impressive if you're correct.

Re:third-person singular simple present?

[bigstrat2003]

Slashdot Viewership Disappears Editors From Headlines

Joke's on you! Can't take away what was never there, after all. ;)

Re:third-person singular simple present?

[Kozar_The_Malignant]

In Catch-22, the Army disappeared Dunbar in the 1961 first edition, so I think it predates the Argentine nastiness.

Re:third-person singular simple present?

[Lemmy Caution]

The use of the term "to disappear" as a transitive verb, in both English and Spanish, picked up considerable momentum during the period of the Argentine junta, and evokes memories of the military dictatorships of Latin American in the 1970's.

It's very apt usage here. The grammar police in this case are missing the point.

Don't use Google Argentina?

[GeorgeMonroy]

They don't have to use Google Argentina.

Re:Don't use Google Argentina?

[eln]

It's not that easy. Google has thousands of operatives whose only job is to make sure people only use the Google authorized for their location. The consequences of straying from your designated Google are swift and severe.

I was talking to a friend on the phone when we started talking about why Google would have all of these different pages for different countries, and we couldn't think of why. So, my friend decides to try a search result on Google US and then on Google Australia just to see if anything was different. He had barely hit enter on the Google Australia search when suddenly I heard glass breaking and what sounded like helicopters over the phone. My friend screamed, and the line went dead. No one has heard from him since.

I tried to do some investigating of my own, and hit Google Mexico from an Internet cafe. Luckily, when the Google operatives burst through the front windows and started shooting the place up, I was able to escape through the back door. They were able to follow me with Google Earth, but I managed to give them the slip when I accidentally fell through an open manhole.

I've been living in the sewers under the city ever since that day. I haven't dared try to contact anyone, for fear Google would find me. This is the first time I've even dared to try to connect to the 'net, and I can't stay long.

Wait, I hear footsteps...

Oh shit, they're here! WARN THE OTHE^&^4wg4$^

NO CARRIER

Re:Don't use Google Argentina?

[calixaren]

You can run, but you cannot escape :-)

Re:Don't use Google Argentina?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, I have the escape key. However, whenever I try to run something I get:
(a)bort, (r)etry, (f)ail?

Re:Don't use Google Argentina?

[grayshirtninja]

You should have posted as AC

Re:Don't use Google Argentina?

[phlegmboy]

AC=Anonymous Corpse?

Re:Don't use Google Argentina?

[77Punker]

You can run, but you cannot escape :-)

Dammit! Magic quotes!

Re:Don't use Google Argentina?

[grayshirtninja]

He is now.

ummm.

[rev_g33k_101]

when did the translators for zero wing start editing for slashdot?

Re:ummm.

[haystor]

What you say?!

Re:ummm.

[hal2814]

Somebody set up us the bomb.

Re:ummm.

[Anonymous Coward]

That usage of disappear pretty much came about to describe some of Argentina's actions in the past. It's quite appropriate.

Re:ummm.

[VeNoM0619]

Could be an attempt at making all headlines sound like Yoda as well...

If one must be disappeared,
Disappear self, one must...

Re:ummm.

[TaoPhoenix]

How about the copyright owners of Borat?

Re:ummm.

[Matt Perry]

when did the translators for zero wing start editing for slashdot?

Slashdot is edited?!

Really now?

[Bobfrankly1]

Argentine Judges Disappear Celebrities From Internet

Underwhelming Story Submission Disappear English Skills Apart Slashdot Editors

---Really, how do you miss this?

Fix the damn CSS (or whatever)

[Yvan256]

Can't click on the " Yahoo! Mexico" or "Google Argentina" links on the front page for some reason.

Me thinks it's the stupid CSS or layout of the (useless) tags that messes things up.

A small suggestion (a la Mr. Swift)

[Patchw0rk F0g]

Perhaps they've solved our problem of over-populated web-hits on our idiotic, media-seeking celebrities up here.

If I recall correctly, Jon Swift purported that Irish babies would go a long way to feeding the impoverished English public.

If anyone from Google or Yahoo! in general is reading, could we add Lindsay Lohan, Brittney Spears and the other paparazzi-fodder to that list for the search sites world-wide? I'm not suggesting that eating their babies would be a good idea, but I'm positive eating up their web-hits and searches would go a long way to feeding the positive intelligence of not only the English public, but the world.

Think of it as doing your part to solve the (intellectual) hunger problems of the world. Onemillionactsofgreen.com would then meet their quota in... oh, about 30 minutes or so?!

flat wrong

[inzy]

yeah, the yahoo argentina search provides nothing, but the google one turns up thousand of results. get your evidence straight slashdot

your use of the word 'disappear', apart from beign shocking grammar, is slightly disturbing and over the top, considering what it actually means in an argentinian context, i.e. the mass abduction and execution of anti-government protesters. i hardly think maradona's name not appearing in yahoo searches is even vaguely comparable. who are you, the national enquirer? this is sensationalist, hatchet journalism

next

Re:flat wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

Somewhere, a village is missing its idiot.

You:

yeah, the yahoo argentina search provides nothing, but the google one turns up thousand of results. get your evidence straight slashdot

The post:

Try it yourself -- compare the results for a Yahoo! Argentina search for Diego Maradona (0 results) to a search at Yahoo! Mexico and Google Argentina (both with millions of results)."

Re:flat wrong

[sgt.greywar]

Perhaps reading the comments above yours where the usage of the word "disappear" is explained in this context (with links to boot) would help you grasp why it was done. Reading prior to commenting is always nice. Additionally Slashdot is not simply geared for one nation or another's sensitivities to individual words (and connotations in this case) so while it might be upsetting beyond all measure to you to compare the disappearance of Google results to a local usage of the word with different conotations it is also irrelevant to Slashdot as a whole. If they were to ensure that every noun or verb in a Slashdot article couldn't possibly offend anyone anywhere they would never publish a thing. Feel free to submit your own articles with better words if you think that you have them. Otherwise perhaps you should avoid Slashdot's "Sensationalist, hatchet journalism" altogether and simple go elsewhere? It is still a free internet (at least outside of Argentina, China, and Iran). "Next" indeed sir.

Re:flat wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

So's your face

Much love,
AC

inb4

[Anonymous Coward]

In before "search engines are evil for following the law".

Re:inb4

[randyest]

Hello Mr. AC, how is following an immoral law not evil?

Re:inb4

[geekgirlandrea]

Well, considering they could easily avoid doing so by just not having any operations in that jurisdiction, and in fact they probably don't, and seem to have cooperated with this just for the sheer glee of censorship, yeah, I'd say that's pretty fucking evil.

Here's your sign

[0xdeadbeef]

"In the case of forced disappearance the word disappear, which is properly an intransitive verb, becomes transitive."

Re:Here's your sign

[rev_g33k_101]

"In the case of forced disappearance the word disappear, which is properly an intransitive verb, becomes transitive."

Or you know you could just laugh at the joke, because it sounds like the engrish mistranslations.

Even if it is the correct usage.

Don't forget

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We donâ(TM)t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." --James D. Nicoll

Re:Here's your sign

[rev_g33k_101]

oops

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." --James D. Nicoll

Oh, Argentina!

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, Argentina! Don't you search for me.

Tak3 a pag3 fr0m spamm3rs

[Qubit]

Try searching for 'marad0na' - I'm guessing that people will start to use alternate spellings to bypass the filters... :-)

Re:Tak3 a pag3 fr0m spamm3rs

[Anonymous Coward]

or simply just seach for
mardona

Re:Tak3 a pag3 fr0m spamm3rs

[Anonymous Coward]

Or just use yahoo.com , I don't use the local search engines or care about famous people, so I would never have noticed it :-P

Re:Tak3 a pag3 fr0m spamm3rs

[Vlad_the_Inhaler]

Use http://www.google.es/ - that should produce results

Before /. starts to panic about free speech...

[Anonymous Coward]

Consider that Argentina has a very severe problem with high-profile Argentinians and their families being kidnapped and held for ransom.

Re:Before /. starts to panic about free speech...

[Anonymous Coward]

That's a lie, plain and simple. There was a short rash of kidnappings (I don't think any at the time were famous people, though), but that's over.
  I have heard in some countries even nonfamous people go around with bodyguards (I remember a friend in Mexico, for example). Here you can see most famous people walking alone, having coffee in a bar, etc. I don't like this country much, I'm moving out ASAP, there is plenty to criticise about Argentina, but kidnappings? Nope.

Remember folks!

[ZekoMal]

We may all live on the same planet, but we're not all allowed to receive the same information :D Yay for not all humans being equal according to where we were born and raised!

Re:Remember folks!

[networkconsultant]

Some are "More equal" than others; well at least according to the OECD, IMF, and a few other institutions.

work around :P

[Anonymous Coward]

you could always work around it by doing an advanced search though.

blocked?

[Anonymous Coward]

google.com / 3,150,000 for Diego Maradona
google.com.ar / 2,920,000 for Diego Maradona

fail

Re:blocked?

[cHALiTO]

An example of Google's filtering in Argentina can be seen by searching for "susana gimenez sexshop" which will result in three links at the bottom of the page to the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse -- a project that tracks these incidents and seeks to inform users of their rights.

On Google.com.ar:
Resultados 1 - 10 de aproximadamente 2.700 de susana gimenez sexshop. (0,06 segundos)

On Google.com (through US Proxy):
  Results 1 - 10 of about 2,670 for susana gimenez sexshop. (0.11 seconds)

And about the same sites/news on both..

In Soviet Russia

[Anonymous Coward]

In Soviet Russia celebrities disappear YOU!

Typical American "comedy"

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's a typical example of Americans and what they consider "comedy", Slashdot.

"xD hay guise I made a reference to something, that automatically makes it funny and insightful XD XD XD"

don't quit your day jobs, yanks

Here's how

[Blappo]

Because "moral" and "evil" don't describe the same things and aren't interchangeable concepts.

But don't let nuance prevent you from saying something stupid and wrong, like you did there.

Re:Here's how

[randyest]

Of course "moral" and "evil" aren't the same. If anything, they're close to opposites. I never claimed otherwise -- what an odd thing for you to say. Did you reply to the correct post?

As overused as "nuance" is thanks to this election season, perhaps you could cultivate enough nuance yourself to understand that what is "evil" or "moral" is subjective, and not really something that one could say is "stupid and wrong" as you so pompously did?

What's next?

[supersloshy]

First people aren't allowed to talk about the government leaders, then we're not allowed to talk about celebrities... what's next, "Be happy, don't talk bad about yourself... or else!"

You don't appear to be smart enough to get this

[Blappo]

You seem to be very stupid.

When you ask "how can following an immoral law NOT be evil" as you did, the implication you are making is that if it is IMMORAL, it is EVIL.

However, that is moronic. As I stated, they are nit the same and do not describe the same things. In fact, you admit I am right with this quote

"Of course "moral" and "evil" aren't the same."

So then, you are claiming two unrelated descriptorsd are in fact joined at the hip, which is of course, stupid and wrong.

It is perfectly possible for something to be "immoral" without being "evil" as THEY DESCRIBE TWO ENTIRELY DIFFERENT THINGS.

I did laugh at the fact that you restated exactly what I said, yet seem to be too stupid to realize it.

Are you sure you're capable of reading well enouh to get the point, as you totally missed it previously. On purpose, I suspect, or maybe your reading comprehensino is that shitty.

"As overused as "nuance" is thanks to this election season, perhaps you could cultivate enough nuance yourself to understand that what is "evil" or "moral" is subjective"

I know retard, I made that point. You seem to be very stupid, as you totally missed that one too.

"and not really something that one could say is "stupid and wrong" as you so correctlydid?"

No, imbecile, your assertion that a law is evil if immoral is stupid and wrong.

And you are REALLY REALLY bad at reading for comprehension.

Of course, you're also a whiny fuck who will most likely try to avoid admitting that your reading comprehension is shitty, even thugh you basically restated my post and aren't smart enough to realize it.

In fact, you'll probably try to pretend it's my fault you can't read worth a fuck, and make idiotic posts as a result.

Re:You don't appear to be smart enough to get this

[randyest]

You should see someone about that anger issue. I said that "moral" is not "evil" which is obvious. But that doesn't mean than "immoral" isn't similar to "evil." Which was my point. That you missed. Because the froth from your mouth and the pounding of your fists and the steam from your nose generated by yout impotent rage blinded you.

Better luck next time!

Back door... more like front door ... work around

[MaliciousSmurf]

Actually, this isn't true... Search "mardona" in ar.search.yahoo.com, and it says, "Hemos incluido los resultados para maradona" or, "We have included the results for Maradona." Oops. They left a back door.

TA, it seems only you got the bad taste joke

[Anonymous Coward]

Regretfully Argentina is famous for the Desaparecidos, 30.000 people were abused, tortured, and murdered in the 70's dictatorship. (And before you climb that self-righteousness pedestal and make fun of this, all that was part of a US government plan: Operation Condor.)

Know much history? It's an intentional pun.

[A nonymous Coward]

It's a dark joke on the thousands of people who "disappeared" during the late great dictatorship.

This is interesting...

[Viceroy Potatohead]

I decided to see if I could check the same filtering mechanism with Canada and the US. The only obvious thing that struck me to search for is 'lolicon', since I'm pretty sure it's illegal in Canada but not the states.

The US results (1,350,000 results)
The Canadian results (1,230,000)

Or am I missing some incredibly obvious other reason that these results are different?

Re:This is interesting...

[Monsieur_F]

My guess is that it depends on the exchange rate of Canadian dollar over US dollar, or something like that.

Other examples with selected words from your post:

"mechanism" : 86,9 million results (US) / 82,2 million results (Canada)
"incredibly" : 43,6 million results (US) / 40,5 million results (Canada)
"obvious" : 104 millions results (US) / 97 millions results (Canada)

Re:This is interesting...

[cHALiTO]

Google's search algorithm produces different results in different localizations, I would think it gives more relevance to results in the same language and/or geography (i.e., in Google Argentina, results in spanish and from places close/in Argentina would be somewhat higher in ranking than the same results in Google.com).

Re:This is interesting...

[networkconsultant]

No there's just less hentai in Canada, and more consumers of hentai in the United States; it's not illegal according to any statute here, we just don't have as many pervs as you do.

That and we'd rather preoccupy ourselves with the Real Thing!

Shampoo

[Anonymous Coward]

> when did the translators for zero wing start editing for slashdot?

Back when that idea was invented by Shampoo?

just misspell

[PixetaledPikachu]

Search for mardona

Beyond not RTFA

[Amphetam1ne]

Not content with simply not RTFA, slashdotters have given up on commenting on the article, prefering instead to comment on the grammar and wording of the headline.

I'm sure that someone will point out the irony of me commenting about people not commenting on TFA any second now.

Re:Back door... more like front door ... work arou

[Kozar_The_Malignant]

Just search on Cocaine. Maradona's bound to turn up.

Where the heck is Argentina again?

[Arancaytar]

I just looked on Google maps, and I absolutely can't find it...

Re:Where the heck is Argentina again?

[WEGAH]

Argentina? look at the map again. is in African continent. Near Amazon Florest right side from north Africa. I thin the capital call Brazilia or Bogota, something like that.

Re:Where the heck is Argentina again?

[shentino]

I think you mean South America

Re:Where the heck is Argentina again?

[cHALiTO]

whoosh!!!

Re:Where the heck is Argentina again?

[Arancaytar]

I was about to type "Whoosh", but then I realized I would earn one myself.

Hey, Argentina!

[Jane Q. Public]

Do not go gentle into that good night
Rage, rage against the dying of the light
--Dylan Thomas

more grammar fascists please...

[jjohn_h]

>>> OED 3. trans. To cause to disappear.

OED gives one single example of such usage,
a grammar-impaired chemist A.D. 1897.

'disappear' is transitiv in all English dictionaries for everyday usage.

Try searching for 'diego maradon' instead

[Anonymous Coward]

Plenty of hits for diego maradona.