Google removes posts from blog critical of New Zealand government

February 5, 2007

Google removed a number of posts from a blog which rants about the New Zealand Department of Child, Youth and Family Services (CYFS), called CYFSWATCH NEW ZEALAND. The action comes after the New Zealand Government laid a formal complaint, according to Radio New Zealand. The removal of information by Google has been described by observers as censorship.

The blog, hosted by Google's Blogspot, invites readers to send in their stories about how they have been treated by CYFS, and also to provide a description and personal details of the people hired by CYFS.

The blog describes itself as a web site that "...is dedicated to all those people who have been bullied, intimidated, or 'familially raped' by the Department of Child, Youth, & Family..."

The Blogger Team made a post saying Google had found, following the complaint, that some blog content may have allegedly breached their Blogspot terms of service. "As a result, we've been forced to remove the infringing posts from your blog."

CYFSWATCH then asked Google under what grounds did they breach the terms of service.

New Zealand Police were called to investigate the blog for reasons that included the sharing of personal information, from which the blog could put employees of CYFS and their families at risk.