Google Blocks Anti-Semitic Content in Spain

“The understanding with Google allows for the blocking of specific content from its search engine by filing detailed blocking notices,” says The Lawfare Project.

By United With Israel Staff 

The Lawfare Project is heralding “a significant breakthrough in its efforts to block some of the worst examples of online Jew-hatred from Google search results in Spain.”

The U.S. nonprofit think tank and litigation fund says that as “a result of legal action taken last year by Spanish Jews, represented by The Lawfare Project, Google LLC has reached an understanding with our lawyers in Spain to block defamatory content, including material promoting Nazi ideology and denying the Holocaust that is scornful with the victims.”

The Project says that “Google’s lawyers examined the complaints and, subsequently, various examples of anti-Semitic content identified in the notices are now blocked from appearing in Google searches in Spain. This includes articles published by the Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website promoting extreme racism against Jews and others”.

It says that to the “best of the knowledge of the parties involved, this is the first time that Google has blocked illegal content against the Jewish people based on defamation complaints.”

Google recently announced changes to its policies on racist and extremist content on YouTube, The Lawfare Project notes, “but those changes do not affect the appearance of extreme content in Google search engine results.”

Now, however, “the understanding with Google allows for the blocking of specific content from its search engine by filing detailed blocking notices, marking a turning point in the tech giant’s approach to violent and defamatory anti-Semitic content,” it says.

Cooperation with Google allowed for gleaning “clear concepts of illegal content regarding Jews as a vulnerable minority and victims of the Holocaust that both uphold free speech to the utmost level allowed by the European Convention on Human Rights while [also] following the standards of the European Court of Justice,” said The Lawfare Project’s Spanish counsel, Ignacio Wenley Palacios, who acted on behalf of the Spanish Jewish claimants.

“Acting on this commitment, new examples of extreme, racist content addressed to Jews have been blocked from Google Search,” he said

“For many, the road to anti-Semitic radicalization is through an online search result. It is unacceptable, immoral, and unlawful in Spain for online platforms to profit from extreme and violent propaganda against Jews. The Lawfare Project will continue to support such actions in Europe to get tech firms to clean up their act, ” said Brooke Goldstein, executive director of The Lawfare Project.