http://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/aprc8/google_agrees_to_take_down_encyclopedia_dramatica/
Encyclopedia Dramatica, a Meme encyclopedia, known to many internet power users as simply ED (genital pun usually intended) has had articles censored by google’s australian branch for distasteful content concerning the native people of Australia. Australia is well known for it’s iron fist of censorship. Many video games have to have special Australian versions.
It’s important to note that, just like Wikipedia, ED is a Wiki and therefore user edited. The fact that any one from google, regardless of region, would censor a wiki of any sort, is distasteful in it’s own right.
Boy, this is a tricky case. Censorship stinks, and the Australian government has proposed some particularly heavy-handed laws in an attempt to assert an artificial control over networks that more properly belong to their users.
That said, it’s important to note that language is not as neutral to many indigenous peoples as it is to Euro-ethnic society. I would personally *consider* blocking Web pages that encourage or justify centuries-old histories of cultural genocide, just as I would consider blocking Web pages that distributed anthrax recipes or maps of nuclear fuel repositories.
The ideal solution, however, would be to encourage communities to police themselves. It sounds like ED isn’t exactly mature enough to do this, but in my book the Wikipedia debate over whether to “out” the Star Wars Kid is a good example of a successful self-policing community.