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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)."
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.
Indeed.
OED 3. trans. To cause to disappear.
Self-righteous grammar fascists - it's a lot more impressive if you're correct.
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.