The Anti-Defamation League has asked Yahoo! Inc. to shut down a number of online clubs it says are either racist or anti-Semitic and thus violates the popular Web portal's own rules. But some observers believe the controversy may strike at the heart of free speech concerns.
Yahoo! Clubs includes bulletin boards and chat rooms, which let users post pictures and text, but the portal's rules of agreement say members cannot post hateful, racially or ethnically objectionable material. But the ADL has mounted a letter-writing and press release campaign, accusing Yahoo! of hosting dozens of such clubs, including clubs supporting the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and the National Association for the Advancement of White People, the latter a group founded by former Klan leader David Duke.
"We hope to continue to work with Yahoo! and other Internet service providers to monitor hate and deny extremists a platform at Web sites where user policies strictly forbid offensive material," Abraham Foxman, the ADL National Director, said in a statement obtained by Reuters.
ADL spokesman Jordan Kessler tells Reuters one club with Nazi views was taken down but others devoted to groups like the Klan remain active on Yahoo! "We are seeing that many of the sites that we are concerned about our still up on Yahoo! server," Kessler tells Reuters in a telephone interview. "We are asking Yahoo! to remove these clubs that violate their terms of service that hate speech is not allowed on their servers."
Ordinarily, Yahoo! follows a hands-off policy on clubs and gives users self-policing power, though senior producer Mark Hull tells Reuters Yahoo! does investigate all complaints. "We do not police our clubs and we do not moderate our clubs," Hull said in a telephone interview. "I can say that sites have been taken down in the past."
This isn't the first time the ADL has put such pressure on Internet companies. America Online shut down a pro-Klan Web page following ADL concern and communications, Reuters says, adding tougher hate speech rules. But the issue also poses broader free speech implications. Kessler, though, says the ADL is not looking to deny free speech rights even involving hate speech, but targeting companies that have rules banning hate speech.
"There are many Internet service providers and other services that do not have rules against hate speech and they have every right to not have those rules," he tells Reuters. "What we've been concerned about is when servers do have these rules saying they don't want hate but hate remains on their servers."
