A German expansion of Yahoo Inc's online photo-sharing service Flickr has been less than picture-perfect.
In the latest outcry against Yahoo's practices outside the US, Flickr is fending off censorship complaints because it is preventing users in Germany from viewing many of the images posted on its Web site.
The limitations, imposed earlier this week when Flickr launched a German-language version of its service, have provoked indignant online protests that apparently caught management off guard.
"We're all getting really uncomfortable that the words `flickr' and `censorship' are being jammed together with increasing frequency because that is so far from the direction we're trying to move in," Heather Champ, Flickr's community manager, wrote in a note posted on Thursday evening on the photo service's blog.
Flickr has previously encountered similar criticism when some of its photos were blocked in the United Arab Emirates and China.
The problems in Germany -- reported earlier by citizen journalism Web site NowPublic.com -- revolve around controls enabling Flickr's users to identify photos that should not be viewed by children or other people who might be offended by the images.
The "SafeSearch" function can usually be turned off by users interested in seeing all the photos available on Flickr, but that option is not being offered in Germany.
"In other words, German users can't access photos on Flickr that are not flagged `safe,'" wrote one user in an online forum. "Only flowers and landscapes for the Germans."
Yahoo said Flickr's restrictions adhere to German laws requiring Web sites to verify that visitors are old enough to see potentially sensitive content. In her posting, Champ indicated Flickr decided to proceed cautiously instead of exposing Yahoo's employees in Germany to possible jail time for breaking the age-restriction laws.
"We should have handled this differently, and have been exploring many possible approaches which would allow us to do what makes sense while still operating inside the law," Yahoo said in a statement released on Friday.
Yahoo, which bought Flickr in 2005, has periodically faced accusations of censorship as it expanded into countries run by governments that stifle free speech. Yahoo has been criticized for blocking access to some of its content and turning over e-mail information that helped China's government convict dissidents. Two of the dissidents are suing Yahoo for its role in their convictions.
The California-based company has consistently said it is just complying with the law wherever it operates, even if management does not necessarily agree with the law.
That attitude inspired a Yahoo shareholder to propose changes that that would have management fight more aggressively against all forms of Internet censorship. The proposal was rejected by wide margin at Yahoo's annual meeting earlier this week.
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