Flickr Filtered: Germany takes control

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Flickr, a image sharing portal for professionals, hobbyists or just cat lovers has hit Internet headlines again for issues related to access and censorship. Last year it was the U.A.E. [United Arab Emirates] blocking the country from the images on Flickr, causing users to bounce their connection off other servers to use the site. Recently China followed suit [NP], and some speculated the block by the Chinese government was related to the Tienanmen Square anniversary date [NP].

Now Germany has stepped up to the headline [NP] by disallowing users from accessing moderate and restricted photos in Germany; but the "what" and "why" are still not obvious to Flickr users. It wasn't until late last night that a response from Flickr staff fully explained the issue...age restrictions and adult content. To fully understand it, you need to know some background...

On March 22 a new filter system was introduced [Flickr Blog] on Flickr which allow users to set their viewing comfort level with images on the website. This allows for the diverse collection of images that runs from hard-core pornography to pictures of kittens and babies. Overall this idea of filtering is quite sound and allows for more users to participate without worrying about showing their friends photos they posted and accidentally pulling up adult content.

Further, the issue of what is "safe content" has become something of a debate for months on Flickr, but that's not the problem. With any international organic "living" website, you have many different countries and many different laws that come into play. To add a twist into the mix, Flickr was acquired by Yahoo in March 2005. Yahoo, a company known to bow to foreign governments, required Flickr users to create Yahoo accounts to continue using Flickr. Yahoo an international company, abides by local laws.

Many Flickr users accept this response, but they are still frustrated. Some are questioning the German laws Yahoo and Flickr are (not yet) citing. The tipping point for online communities is an interesting phenomenon. Case in point, enough people feel strongly that there is an online petition [Superfluence], Wiki [ACF wiki] and a Flickr Group [Flickr] to discuss the problem and express frustration in art.

While I think the situation could have been handled a little differently, I can't argue with international laws. Hopefully in the future Flickr will be quick to explain situations like this so users won't feel alienated.