Google ordered to stop recommending anti-Semitic sites

A court in Buenos Aires has ordered Google to stop recommending anti-Semitic and racist websites to users.

The injunction issued May 17 comes following a complaint filed by several Jewish organizations. The decision came on the World Day of the Internet.

The court ordered Google to drop some 76 websites described in the complaint as “highly discriminatory,” including some that deny the Holocaust. Judge Carlos Molina Portela also ordered that advertisements be removed from those sites.

The request for the injunction was prepared by Observatorio Web, a joint initiative that the DAIA political umbrella organization of Argentina’s Jewish community, the Latin American Jewish Congress and the AMIA Jewish community center developed to combat discrimination on the web.

In December 2010, after Observatorio Web publicly denounced Google for its recommendation of the anti-Semitic and racist sites, the company wrote in its blog for Latin America: “Google is committed and works in every country in which it has presence, including Argentina, to prevent the proliferation of violent or racist content. This is not going to impede the appearing of groups or organizations who would wish for different policies or who have more restrictive criteria of freedom of speech.”

Alfredo Neuburger, a political adviser at the DAIA, told JTA: “The class action undertaken by the legal affairs department of DAIA against Google is unprecedented and the swift decision of the court has significant implications in the global struggle against anti-Semitism.”