Shannon Larratt is Zentastic

Here's what you get when you search for “bme” in Germany:

The note says that they have responded to a legal demand to remove three websites (ie. BME) from the search results. When you click through to the info site, here's what you get:

“A URL that otherwise would have appeared in response to your search, was not displayed because that URL was reported as illegal by a German regulatory body.”

This is a process that the German government started back in 1999 (translation). To make a long story short, it is the contention of the German government, I believe incorrectly so, that BME must entirely block underage viewers from seeing anything on the site, and they want ModBlog shut down.

Lame.

BME is incredibly valuable for readers of all ages. If the German government wants to kid itself into thinking that people under the age of 18 don't need information on body modification, it's their hands that become bloody with the results of people who move forward without the opportunity to educate themselves — to say nothing of the political free speech issues. Not that Germany has ever been seen as a bastion of progressive politics.

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