[Cl4rity]

Actually, Tom gets it right. It's called discretion. Use his public example, for instance. If you were, for example, a cross-dresser who loved wearing women's underwear - and only women's underwear - would that be tolerated by the general public if you were roaming around a mall?

"But this is who I really am, and it's how I want to portray myself in public!"

It's Google's playground, and you either play by the rules or suffer the consequences. You wouldn't berate mall cops if they had to remove offensive people from the premises.

[vidarh]

I find it interesting that most attempts to support Google in this instances uses far more extreme examples to justify it.

I don't think anyone is insisting that there are no types of images that are so bad that it wouldn't be ok for Google to remove them. At least I haven't seen anyone claim so.

As long as that is the case, using examples that the vast majority would agree are worse than the one that was actually taken down just weakens your point dramatically.

[megablast]

By using extreme examples, people show that obviously there is a line. Most people agree some photos should be banned, after this point is made.

Now we are just arguing about where the line is.

[icebraining]

If you were, for example, a cross-dresser who loved wearing women's underwear - and only women's underwear - would that be tolerated by the general public if you were roaming around a mall?

No, but one can disagree with both Google and the general public.

It's Google's playground, and you either play by the rules or suffer the consequences.

That doesn't mean we can't publicly disagree with the rules.

You wouldn't berate mall cops if they had to remove offensive people from the premises.

Mall cops don't decide the rules, they just apply them. It's different.

[ugh]

If I do that in public there are laws and elected officials, there are courts and ways for me to appeal. A clear and explicit notification is always given and if not I can sue. Most importantly, some things I’m definitely and always allowed to do are explicitly written down.

If you are in favor of Google treating their site like a public space then Google is doing very poorly.

(It’s a stupid comparison that gets us nowhere.)