EU Censorship News

Google has begun removing search links to content in Europe under the right to be forgotten ruling, which obliges it exclude web pages with supposedly outdated or irrelevant information about individuals from web searches.

Searches made on Google's services in Europe using peoples' names includes a section at the bottom with the phrase Some results may have been removed under data protection law in Europe , and a link to a page explaining the ruling by the European court of justice (ECJ) in May 2014.

However searches made on Google.com, the US-based service, do not include the same warning, because the ECJ ruling only applies within Europe.

Google would not say how many peoples' search histories have been censored, nor how many web pages have been affected.

Comment: Goggle.eu.censored

28th June 2014. From Alan

Not mentioned in the Guardian report is the difficulty for UK surfers of finding uncensored searches on the American site. If I'm in Italy, I can either search in Italian at google.it or, if I want to search in English and enter google.com, I get the American site. But in this country, typing the URL for google.com redirects to google.co.uk. Looks like we Brits are particular disadvantaged by the absurd decision of twattish Euro-judges.

In March this year, the Belgian parliament passed the Anti-Sexism Act ( Antiseksismewet ), which bans sexist speech from public life, be it in books, magazines or on the internet.

The new law is bound to raise countless problems, and not just in Belgium. For as long as there is someone in Belgium who is exposed to speech they deem sexist , under the terms of the new law it will be possible for that individual to instigate criminal proceedings. This means that any speech or form of expression that merely reaches Belgium could be subject to prosecution.

Inevitably the text is drafted so vaguely and broadly as to render its application limitless. Sexism is defined as any gesture or action intended to express contempt towards someone because of their sex, or to regard a person as inferior , or to reduce someone to his or her sexual dimension . Additionally, a violation of someone's dignity is required.

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A controversial painting that depicts a smiling vagina on a staircase has been allowed to remain at a Swedish high school but will now be censored by a wall.

The artwork by Carolina Falkholt sparked a fierce debate over censorship, after it was announced that the mural would be on display at a junior high school in Nykoping for 13-to 15-year-olds.

Following months of debate over the suitability of the location for the mural, the local council has decided that the picture will be obscured by a wall rather than painting over the mural. Local government representative Eric Carlgren said:

There are many of the opinion that the painting shouldn't be exposed. Now we have solved the problem but the painting is still there.

However, the news has not gone down well with the mural's creator Falkholt who said:

I'm shocked. All the students know what kind of painting is under there.

In January the school's principal, Harke Steenbergen, said he wanted to keep the painting in its original guise and added that he liked its message.