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Is Flickr filtering pictures and for whom?

by Volker Weber

There is quite a commotion going on about Flickr filtering pictures for users from Germany, and a few other countries. People are rallying behind a protest and asking me to join. I'd be happy to do that. However, I cannot verify the alleged censoring.

My Yahoo profile contains a German address and I am still able to see all pictures.

I don't know why it would make sense for Yahoo to censor "unsafe" pictures for all German visitors. We do have a law* against providing pornography to minors, but adults are fair game. Maybe Flickr is filtering pictures for visitors where they are not sure if they are dealing with adults? I have no idea.

Is there any official statement from Flickr about this issue? I really don't want to participate in a witch hunt.

*) A "wardrobe malfunction" is a non-issue here. We are more concerned with violence than nudity.

Tags: flickr

Comments

Yes, there is an official statement

Yes, great statement. Zero content.

Volker, does your Yahoo account end in .de?

And you can still see the image when clicking on the fourth photo here? http://www.flickr.com/photos/loupiote/sets/440147/

Volker, you probably have an old US/Int'l ID. Like me. So your and mine account is not affected by that. It is a matter of solidarity to join the protest.

Hm my yahoo account does not end in .de -- actually it does not look like an email address at all ;) (but I also do not own a yahoo email address)

And I can see all photos from the given photoset.

For me, the picture is censored as well. And the explaining text says:

IMPORTANT: This set contains photos with nudity which are considered "unsafe" and have been CENSORED by Yahoo/Flickr.

Although, since it's context dependent, probably not all of you can see this text, I would still say that this is an official statement with definite content.

My Yahoo account (and the associated, never used e-mail address for that matter) ends in .de even though a) I have registered while still living in the U.S and b) am now living in Switzerland. I can change the country in the time zone as well as in the address information. Changing either to U.S. didn't have an immediate effect on FlickR, but that may as well be a replication issue. Or they see that I'm still connecting coming from a Swiss network. We'll have to wait a little...

My account comes out of nearly egroups times, so I assume my user is too old to be country specific.

I see:

IMPORTANT: This set contains photos with nudity which are considered "unsafe" and have been CENSORED by Yahoo/Flickr. To use a Guest Pass that gives you immediate UNCENSORED ACCESS to all the photos in this set, just click here. Note: People in Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore and Korea will not be able to see all photos due to Yahoo's new censorship policies in those countries. Sorry.

That is really bogus. And how are they going to figure out which pictures should be censored?

I see the same. When i use the Guest Pass i see the thumbs but not the photo after clicking on the thumb. So i am censored.

Btw: i like this country combination, it is quite unusual seeing all this countries in one sentence: Germany, Hong Kong, Singapore and Korea ;-)

And how are they going to figure out which pictures should be censored?

That's exactly the question, Ed. This time maybe it is nudity or the likely. But you know that somebody is continuously examine your content and activities, and decides what your access to the content will be. And the rules of selection may change from time to time. What if not nudity will be the leveling rule? What if it is next time religion? Your beliefs? Politics?... Some are laughing here? Don't. Sometimes the crossing line is thin. In these days people outside the US are very sensitive to control coming from the US.

Why not just create an yahoo ID located in the U.S.?

The text on the sidebar is not an official message. Have a closer look at the formatting.

I wouldn't consider any of the censored images in the linked set offensive and I wouldn't have any problem with my kids seeing them.

It's just boobs, they're harmless!

Why not just create an yahoo ID located in the U.S.?

Because i have already a paid Pro-account associated with my german Yahoo-ID. And i can not and want not to change that ...

And even if you would use an US account eventually flickr will check the location of your ip address. And using a foreign proxy is just too much of a hassle.

Here is an interesting thought: It cannot possibly be in Flickr's best interest to filter pictures. So why are they doing it? Who is making them do it? How can we direct the protest there?

SpOn vermutet die deutsche Forenhaftung und die noch recht unterschiedliche Rechtsprechung zu dem Thema als Ursache.

Funny thing: Even though I'm NOT logged in, I can see the picture...!
So, if you are just a guest visitor, you won't be restricted?

There's now a statement from Heather Champ. Probably she means $184 StGB which penalizes the distribution of porn to people under the age of 18.

@Mariano: No hassle at all, I do it all the time. If on a Mac, try Netshade. If on a Windows system, get help.

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vowe.net is a personal website published by Volker Weber a.k.a. vowe. I am an author, consultant and systems architect based in Darmstadt, Germany.

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