A German expansion of Yahoo Inc's online photo-sharing service Flickr has been less than picture-perfect.
In the latest outcry against Yahoo's practices outside the US, Flickr is fending off censorship complaints because it is preventing users in Germany from viewing many of the images posted on its Web site.
The limitations, imposed earlier this week when Flickr launched a German-language version of its service, have provoked indignant online protests that apparently caught management off guard.
"We're all getting really uncomfortable that the words `flickr' and `censorship' are being jammed together with increasing frequency because that is so far from the direction we're trying to move in," Heather Champ, Flickr's community manager, wrote in a note posted on Thursday evening on the photo service's blog.
Flickr has previously encountered similar criticism when some of its photos were blocked in the United Arab Emirates and China.
The problems in Germany -- reported earlier by citizen journalism Web site NowPublic.com -- revolve around controls enabling Flickr's users to identify photos that should not be viewed by children or other people who might be offended by the images.
The "SafeSearch" function can usually be turned off by users interested in seeing all the photos available on Flickr, but that option is not being offered in Germany.
"In other words, German users can't access photos on Flickr that are not flagged `safe,'" wrote one user in an online forum. "Only flowers and landscapes for the Germans."
Yahoo said Flickr's restrictions adhere to German laws requiring Web sites to verify that visitors are old enough to see potentially sensitive content. In her posting, Champ indicated Flickr decided to proceed cautiously instead of exposing Yahoo's employees in Germany to possible jail time for breaking the age-restriction laws.
"We should have handled this differently, and have been exploring many possible approaches which would allow us to do what makes sense while still operating inside the law," Yahoo said in a statement released on Friday.
Yahoo, which bought Flickr in 2005, has periodically faced accusations of censorship as it expanded into countries run by governments that stifle free speech. Yahoo has been criticized for blocking access to some of its content and turning over e-mail information that helped China's government convict dissidents. Two of the dissidents are suing Yahoo for its role in their convictions.
The California-based company has consistently said it is just complying with the law wherever it operates, even if management does not necessarily agree with the law.
That attitude inspired a Yahoo shareholder to propose changes that that would have management fight more aggressively against all forms of Internet censorship. The proposal was rejected by wide margin at Yahoo's annual meeting earlier this week.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed. As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed. The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
Taiwan’s long-term economic competitiveness will hinge not only on national champions like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) but also on the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies, a US-based scholar has said. At a lecture in Taipei on Tuesday, Jeffrey Ding, assistant professor of political science at the George Washington University and author of "Technology and the Rise of Great Powers," argued that historical experience shows that general-purpose technologies (GPTs) — such as electricity, computers and now AI — shape long-term economic advantages through their diffusion across the broader economy. "What really matters is not who pioneers
TAIWAN VALUE CHAIN: Foxtron is to fully own Luxgen following the transaction and it plans to launch a new electric model, the Foxtron Bria, in Taiwan next year Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that its board of directors approved the disposal of its electric vehicle (EV) unit, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), to Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進) for NT$787.6 million (US$24.98 million). Foxtron, a half-half joint venture between Yulon affiliate Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), expects to wrap up the deal in the first quarter of next year. Foxtron would fully own Luxgen following the transaction, including five car distributing companies, outlets and all employees. The deal is subject to the approval of the Fair Trade Commission, Foxtron said. “Foxtron will be
RSS