Research: Online Service Provider Assessment Project: Yahoo Censors

Here's a list of Yahoo clients removed by Yahoo, some of which were later restored and others of which were not. If you'd like to report censorship by Yahoo, please fill out the form at https://www.onlinepolicy.org/services/incidentreportform.shtml

Yahoo Censored the Following Clients

Ancient Exchanges of Nature (AEON)

In January 2003, Yahoo disabled without notification the moderator account for the AEON Yahoo Groups called AEONfest and aeonexus, intended as a virtual space for making meaningful consensual connections between loving adults. Several people on the existing list sent email out to the list to tell them about a new list that was formed to replace the old one, but the same thing happened to the moderator account for the new list, so the AEON folks have started a new website and email list with details available at http://www.magickmonkey.com/

Global Sisterhood Network

On February 14, 2003, just days before a major anti-war protest, the 400-strong Global Sisterhood Network Yahoo group was "abruptly cut off, with no explanation whatsoever ... to the list owner" then reinstated without explanation on February 19 and cut off once again later in February.

Guerilla Queer Bar

In July 2002, Yahoo terminated the website for this "group of San Francisco gays who are bored with the Castro scene and organize field trips to drinking holes in outlying neighborhoods" with vague allegations of nudity/pornography then reinstated the site within days after hundreds of outraged subscribers called Yahoo threatening a boycott. See media coverage of the incident at http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,53658,00.html.

Lamorinda Peace Group

Yahoo terminated the email account for this women's peace group without explanation on October 26, 2002, and would not restore the account despite requests to Yahoo's "customer care" department. The group decided to host its email list at the Online Policy Group.

Queer Vision (San Francisco)

On November 22 or 23, 2004, Yahoo unexplainably purged Queer Vision, a San Francisco progressive and radical political discussion group that evolved out of "Queers For Matt" (Matt Gonzales for mayor) campaign. The group also decided to move to an email list hosted at QueerNet, a project of the Online Policy Group.

SF Queer Longhairs

Yahoo removed the San Francisco Queer Longhairs (sfqueerlonghair) club without explanation on January 24, 2002, and did finally restore the club after repeated requests through special channels. The club decided to move to an email list hosted at QueerNet, a project of the Online Policy Group.

For information on Google removals, see http://www.chillingeffects.org/search.cgi?search=Google

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