[A2k] Search Engines to Block Famous Names in Argentina

[Pranesh Prakash]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
Dear All,
It seems that under Argentine law, temporary injunctions can be sought with
ease even when they involve curtailment of freedom of speech and
expression.  Furthermore, it points to a disturbing trend of shooting the
messengers (the search engines) instead of pursuing individual claims of
defamation, hate speech, copyright infringement, etc., which has direct
effect on the freedom of speech, and the concomitant freedom to receive
information.

Regards,
Pranesh

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Pranesh Prakash
Programme Manager
Centre for Internet and Society

T: +91 80 40926283
W: http://cis-india.org

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http://www.out-law.com//default.aspx?page=3D9588
Argentine search engines told to block famous names

OUT-LAW News, 12/11/2008

Search engines in Argentina have been banned from linking to stories naming
up to 100 famous people including football legend Diego Maradona in a move
critics have said is tantamount to censorship.

Google and Yahoo! have filtered search results relating to the names on
their Argentine sites but not their international ones, the companies told
internet filtering campaigning organisation the OpenNet Initiative (ONI).

Yahoo! has blocked all search results for the individuals, and has publishe=
d
a notice instead of results. That notice, in an automatic translation, says=
:
"Because of a court order sought by private parties, we have been forced to
temporarily remove some or all of the search results".

No final court ruling has been made on the cases but temporary orders have
been issued restricting search engines from publishing search results
relating to 100 people including public servants, judges, models and actors=
.

Martin Leguizam=C3=B3n Pena has said that he is the lawyer behind 108
applications to Argentinian courts since 2006 seeking the blocking of Googl=
e
and Yahoo! search results relating to his clients.

He told Argentina's News Magazine that he had been successful in 80% of the
cases and that he took the action to protect the image rights, privacy and
honour of his clients.

Local press reports claim that some of the orders sought by Pena relate to
specific articles, sites or blogs and some relate to the blocking of
anything produced by a particular search term or name or a combination of
search terms or names.

Google's manager of government affairs and public policy for Latin America
Pedro Less Andrade wrote in a Google blog last month that the court measure=
s
"violate both the freedom of expression and access to information =E2=80=A6
impacting on the development and investment in local connectivity services
and the information society". Quotations from his blog posting have been
automatically translated.

Andrade also suggested that Google may appeal some of the orders if it
believed that they are without basis, technically impossible,
disproportionate to the aim behind the order or affect users' rights to
freedom of expression and censorship-free communication.

The blocking only relates to the Argentinian versions of Google's and
Yahoo!'s search engines. All the material will be viewable through the .com
global versions or through other countries' versions of the search engines.

Wendy Seltzer founded Chilling Effects, which campaigns to stop abuses of
the law to undermine free speech. She told campaigners ONI that the
Argentinian action was "a telling example of the fragmentation of the
internet via intermediaries. Rather than going directly to the source of
objectionable content, complainers find someone in the middle who can be
persuaded to block access in at least some locations."

"This kind of takedown often obscures the source of the objections and
removals," she said. "Chilling Effects aims to add transparency to the
process both by showing takedown demands and by allowing people to compare
results across various localized versions of search engines."

See: Andrade's blog post <
http://googleamericalatinablog.blogspot.com/2008/10/la-censura-previa-nunca=
-es-un-buen.html
>