Google has been sued by Nassau County Legislator Jeffrey Toback
who claims that it is promoting and profiting from child
pornography, going so far as to suggest that child porn is part of
its business model, according to reports.
Newsday reports that Toback filed his lawsuit with the Nassau
State Supreme Court as a private citizen, with no county funds. It
claims that Google "makes its money, in part by facilitating
deviant criminals in the procurement, transfer and marketing of
illicit and patently illegal material, including child pornography
and other obscenity that is banned under federal and state
law."
OUT-LAW has not had sight of the complaint, but the crux of it
appears to be that sites hosting illegal material are found by
searching on Google and even advertised through sponsored links
from which Google makes money.
ZD Net quotes Google spokesman Steve Langdon who explained
Google's policy to remove child pornography from Google's products,
including its search engine, upon finding or being made aware of
it.
This approach is consistent with both US law and UK law. In
short, search engines are not obliged to actively police the
content to which they provide access; but they must respond quickly
when they receive notice of illegal material.
