Gay hate blog removed by Google

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A blog that called for the execution of gay people has been removed by its host company blogger.com, which is owned by Google.

The internet company have yet to release a statement.

However, the blog is now listed as unavailable.

Google came under pressure from gay activists furious that a blog inciting violence against gay people was being hosted by them.

The killbattyman site, hosted by blogger.com, which is owned by Google, was thought to have originated in Jamaica.

The latest post featured a doctored image of Peter Tatchell holding a placard with a sexually explicit picture of a child on it.

It is thought that this image of a child is the reason that Google decided to take the blog offline.

Google work closely with the Internet Watch Foundation, which was formed in the UK in 1996 following an agreement between the government, police and the internet service provider industry.

Though the foundation deals mostly with child abuse images and racist material, it is also responsible for other illegal content and behaviour on the internet.

Staff at website www.gayhate.org complained to the Internet Watch Foundation about the latest image on killbattyman, and got this response:

“We have assessed the image concerned to be potentially illegal under the UK Protection of Children Act. Therefore we have notified details of the content and its origins to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (UK).

“CEOP will disseminate these details to the relevant international law enforcement agency via Interpol.”

UK police are also investigating whether the site has broken any laws in the UK.

The Serious and Organised Crime Agency, who take the lead on internet crime in Britain, are examining the site and will decide if anything can be done about it.

As the blog is emanating from Jamaica and is hosted by an American company, there would be considerable jurisdiction issues that will mean it is unlikely the police in the UK will be able to force the removal of the blog.

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While a website that incites racial hatred is illegal in the UK and would be shut down, there is no broader law against other forms of hate being disseminated on the internet.

The decision to remove the homophobic blog was welcomed by Ben Summerskill, the chief executive of gay rights organisation Stonewall.

“We are delighted that Google has listened to common sense,” he told PinkNews.co.uk

“It is common sense that means you cannot divorce incitement to hatred from the reality of what is happening on the street.

“That is why we are pressing the government to introduce an offence of incitement to hatred which matches the offence of incitement to racial hatred.”

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