You are here: Home » Featured » Lesbian bloggers in Brazil unite against Google Censorship

Lesbian bloggers in Brazil unite against Google Censorship

Posted by: Lezzie on January 29, 2009.

“Blogging only if it’s freely” – This is the slogan of a virtual campaign started by a group of Brazilian bloggers last December against what seemed to be a real Witch Hunt by Google Brazil when some homphobic elements began abusing safeguards put in place to curb internet predators and began targeting Lesbian web sites for censorship.

In the past,Google executives have also drawn criticism for censoring their search results in China and other countries.

It all started when the State Attorney advised Google Brazil to remove every Orkut community, profile or weblogs related to violence, prejudice, pedophilia, porn and others.

Most of Orkut’s members–more than 60 percent–are in Brazil. Earlier this year a Brazilian judge ordered that several blogs hosted at WordPress.com should also be blocked in Brazil.

The government of Brazil had threatened to shut down Google Brazil and fine the company for failure to cooperate with a federal investigation against pedophiles abusing Orkut, the social networking site that was bought by Google back in 2004. The company complied with Brazilian cops in that case and gave Brazilian authorizes full access to Orkut accounts.

But taking a page from the Malleus Maleficarum, soon something of a witch hunt was started in Brazil by anonymous homophobes working day and night in an attempt to associate homosexuality to perversion and some lez blogs began to be red-flagged for ‘questionable content’.

However, the Brazilian Lez Blogespere, lead by Lesbosfera, a blog known for promoting interaction among lesbian publishers, began to fight back… They got bloggers organized, by creating a button against Blogger Brazil censorship and began collecting electronic signatures for a petition in favor of freedom of speech.

So far, 230 people have signed the it.

You can support the campaign by signing the petition or copying the button to your own blog.

Petition against homophobia in the Blogger – Google Brazil.

(Translation… Blogging only if it’s freely)

Notes of interest:

There is no official estimate of the number of Lesbian blogs in Brazil. Lesbosfera lists 73.
The button has crossed the Atlantic and can be also seen displayed in Portuguese blogs now.

Lezzie is half-closeted Brazilian Philosophy High School teacher writing on everything she has the opportunity to read, listen to and see (as a good Gemini).You can find out more about here by checking her profile at http://lezgetreal.ning.com/profile/Boudecca.