Yahoo! Nazi auction ban welcomed

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LONDON, England -- Human rights activists are hailing a decision by Yahoo! to stamp out online auctions of Nazi artifacts, saying the move marks a dramatic climb down by the U.S. Internet giant following a lengthy legal battle.

Yahoo! announced on Tuesday that from January 10 it will ban the sale of Nazi and Ku Klux Klan memorabilia on Web sites it hosts, saying it does not want to profit from items that glorified or promote hatred.

Marc Knoble, a leading activist for the Paris-based International League against Racism and Anti-Semitism (LICRA), who led the legal charge against Yahoo! in the French courts last year, said he believed the battle against Yahoo! had been won.

"Selling these items like they were tomatoes or cars was totally immoral. They are totally out of context on the Net. In a museum they are OK -- that is where you can get a full explanation of what they mean."

Knobel said Yahoo! had imposed the ban because it had realised the publicity was bad for its image.

LICRA's lawyer, Marc Levy, expressed his "great surprise" at the Yahoo! decision.

VIDEO CNN's Allison Tom reports Yahoo! is going ban hate material as well as Nazi paraphernalia Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)    REFERENCE Online Nazi memorabilia   •  Lucrative industry   •  French auction ban   •  Web worries   •  'Virtual zoning'   •  Yahoo's global reach   •  News search

LICRA and the Union of French Jewish Students (UEJF) sued Yahoo! over its auction sites selling items such as Nazi daggers and concentration camp uniforms, saying they broke local laws that forbade the sale or promotion of racist material.

Yqal Elharrar, President of the UEJF, said the decision showed that the "economic grandeur of an important company in the new economy is not above morals and justice."

Yahoo! argued that the Web sites involved were aimed at the American market and said the U.S. first amendment governing freedom of speech prevented it from shutting them.

A French judge ruled against the California-based company in November and gave it three months to set up a filtering system to prevent Internet surfers in France accessing the auctions. It said it would fine the firm 100,000 francs ($13,000) for each day it exceeded the deadline.

Yahoo has vowed to fight the ruling in the U.S. courts, saying it threatens to peg the Internet back behind national boundaries.

Yahoo France Managing Director Philippe Guillanton, said: "They have set a legal and technical precedent that we think is dangerous for the development of the Internet.

"We hope that a U.S. judge will confirm that a non-U.S. court does not have the authority to tell a U.S. company how to operate," he said.

Yahoo! spokeswoman Sue Jackson said the move was intended to put Yahoo's service in line with cultural norms. "Society as a whole has rejected such groups, she said.

Internet watchdogs, while applauding the Yahoo! move, say they do not believe it goes far enough to stop hatred flourishing.

Chief Executive of the Internet Watch Foundation, David Kerr, said the Yahoo ! policy was an "ethical" move. "Frankly, though it is a drop in the ocean," Kerr said.

He said trying to eliminate Web sites which were filled with racist abuse was difficult because laws in European countries differed.

Whereas child pornography is pretty much outlawed worldwide, racist sites are not, he said.

However a new system has been designed by the Internet Content Rating Association which is designed to gag race-hate sites.

With a $1.3 million grant from the European Union, the ICRA has created a new filter in English which is being translated into French, German and Spanish later this month.

The ICRA has linked up with the UK Home Office and also the German Bundeskriminalamt (BKA) who have provided them with lists of hate sites.

The Anti Defamation League in the U.S. has also provided a list of 3,000 hate sites.

The new filter category is called "harm against people" and joins those already in existence for nudity, sex, language, violence and sites promoting alcohol and tobacco.

By creating a directory with a black list of rogue site addresses and then embedding them in Web browsers people can avoid downloading the sites concerned.

ICRA's executive director Stephen Balkam told CNN.com: "We have to strike a balance between protecting children and respecting free speech."

So far 160,000 European and world web-sites are logged with the non-profit-making ICRA, a figure Balkam expects will quadruple this year.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.

French 'unimpressed' by Yahoo appeal to U.S. court
December 25, 2000
Internet moves toward 'virtual zoning'
December 15, 2000
Yahoo! confident in 'Mein Kampf' case
November 30, 2000
Germany investigates online Hitler auction
November 27, 2000
Yahoo! loses Nazi auction case
November 20, 2000
Web worries over French site ban
November 21, 2000

Internet Content Rating Association
Internet Watch Foundation
Yahoo!
Home Office
Anti Defamation League
Bundeskriminalamt, in German

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