5 replies to this topic

[cre8pc]

This caught my eye...

U.S. Funded Health Search Engine Blocks 'Abortion'

The medical data search engine, Popline no longer permits the word "abortion" to be searched for. The tagline for the site is "Your connection to the world's reproductive health literature".

They claim they blocked searches on the word because its federally funded. No notice to users was offered.

[EGOL]

They need to change that tagline to: Your connection to the biased fraction of the world's reproductive health literature that we think you should see.

[Respree]

Really? I don't see them blocking it.

Maybe they had a change of heart, after reading that article.

[joedolson]

I didn't have any trouble either:

Your search found 26469 record(s).

Doesn't seem very censored.

There's a follow-up article, actually, which talks about the very lack of blocking currently in place.

The blocking of the keyword "is a decision that the dean does not support in any way," he added, and the administrators are unblocking the search for the term right now.

[...]

Jordan [director of communications in USAID's office of population and reproductive health] says that the Johns Hopkins database administrators blocked the word "abortion" on their own, and had misunderstood USAID's request.

Off Topic

Except by the fact that their search is really just not very user-friendly, that is.

[cre8pc]

Ah. Yes. Appears as though the sky is no longer falling. Was still curious to read about.

From Joe's find:

The American Library Association's president Loriene Roy applauded dean Klag's swift move to restore the search functionality, but said in a statement that she is still concerned about the overall policy.

"Any federal policy or rule that requires or encourages information providers to block access to scientific information because of partisan or religious bias is censorship," she said. "Such policies promote idealogy over science and only serve to deny researchers, students and individuals on all sides of the issue access to accurate scientific information."

[projectphp]

"Such policies promote idealogy over science and only serve to deny researchers, students and individuals on all sides of the issue access to accurate scientific information."

Isn;t science an ideology (hehehe. Just wanted to throw petrol on the ember).