India: Yahoo, Flickr and Microsoft introduce access filters

IN – Yahoo, Flickr and Microsoft introduce access filters: “(Guardian)
A Guardian investigation has discovered that several internet companies have quietly introduced filters to prevent Indian users from accessing sexual content.

The Yahoo search engine and Flickr photo-sharing site (owned by Yahoo) altered their sites earlier this month to prevent users in India from switching off the safe-search facility. The block also applies to users in Singapore, Hong Kong and Korea. Microsoft has also barred Indian users of its Bing search engine from searching for sexual content. Users who do try to search for sexual material receive a notice informing them that ‘your country or region requires a strict Bing SafeSearch setting, which filters out results that might return adult content’. The clampdown is understood to be in response to recent changes to India’s Information Technology Act of 2000, which bans the publication of pornographic material./p>

(Via QuickLinks Update.)