google.de self-censors porn results?

by Violet Blue on August 17, 2007

This is such a bummer because I’m a YouPorn user, and I’d hate to have to go back to using Yahoo to search for insta-amateur-porn vids next time I visit Berlin. Snip from Google Blogscoped:

You probably knew Google self-censors Nazi material in Germany, but did you know they also self-censor adult stuff? And I’m not talking about the SafeSearch filter. YouPorn.com – a “porn 2.0″ website, and a bit of a clone of Google’s YouTube – is missing with or without SafeSearch, as Wikipedia’s entry on the site points out.

To reproduce this, search for youporn on Google.de. You won’t find the domain youporn.com in the results, but instead, you’ll get the following message at the bottom of the page:

In response to a legal request submitted to Google, we have removed 4 result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read more about the request at ChillingEffects.org.

The Chilling Effects notice, dated December 14, 2005 (the sender is omitted), reads:

A URL that otherwise would have appeared in response to your search, was not displayed because that URL was reported as illegal by a German regulatory body.

What regulatory body this is or why YouPorn is supposed to be illegal, the notice doesn’t mention. Google.de for this particular search reports 4 censored results, but overall, around 88,600 pages are missing (outside of Google results, YouPorn is accessible in Germany, by the way). Wonder if Google would also promptly remove YouTube in Google.de when they’d get the order?

Link.

Violet Blue

The London Times named Violet Blue "One of the 40 bloggers who really count" and Self Magazine named TinyNibbles one of the “Best Sex Resources for Women.” Blue is an autodidact and pundit on sex and technology, hacking and security, porn for women, privacy and bleeding-edge tech culture. She is a journalist for ZDNet, CBS News, CNET; she's an educator, speaker, crisis counselor, volunteer NGO trainer, and the author and editor of over 40 award-winning books.

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