No Yahoo! Hate Auctions ... With a Caveat
N E W Y O R K, Jan. 12 -- Internet powerhouse Yahoo! Inc. has removedthousands of hate items from its online auctions, but will continueto permit sales of Nazi coins and stamps issued by Germany.
Brian Fitzgerald, Yahoo's senior auction producer, said computersoftware and Yahoo staff caught most of the items prohibited undera new ban. The procedures, he said, will be tweaked in the comingweeks and months.
"We always knew it's not going to be 100 percent foolproof,"Fitzgerald said Thursday.
Mein Kampf Still for Sale
Ygal El Harrar, president of the Union of Jewish Students ofFrance, estimated that the number of Nazi items dropped to 400 from1,900 when the ban took effect at 3:01 a.m. ET Wednesday.
Most of the Nazi items that remain are stamps, coins and banknotes issued before and during World War II. Because they wereissued by the government, Fitzgerald said, they are permitted.
Yahoo! also left alone sales of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf asan educational resource. Three copies were on sale as of middayThursday.
A search for KKK turned up 15 items, down from 40 on Tuesday.The remaining items were generally books, videotapes and otherreferences that mention the Ku Klux Klan.
The new ban covers items associated with promoting or glorifyingNazis, the Klan and other hate groups. It took effect as Yahoo! alsobegan imposing fees to list items for sale.
Yahoo! officials insist the ban had nothing to do with a Novembercourt ruling from Paris requiring Yahoo! to block French users fromsuch auctions.
The company, based in Santa Clara, Calif., plans to continuechallenging that ruling and has asked a federal judge in Californiato declare that France has no jurisdiction over content produced byan American business.
Nazi materials are banned in France and at least three otherEuropean countries. The Union of Jewish Students of France and theInternational League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism, or LICRA,filed the lawsuits in France.
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