Politician drops child porn suit against Google

A New York politician who accused Google of profiting from child pornography and violating federal law has dropped his lawsuit, the search giant said.

Jeffrey Toback, a Democratic representative in the Nassau County, N.Y., government, had filed the complaint in May with the New York State Supreme Court. In the lawsuit, Toback charged that Google was making the illicit images an "obscenely profitable and integral part" of its business model.

Specifically, the suit accused the company of amassing billions of dollars by allowing child pornography and "other obscene content" promoters to advertise their sites through sponsored links, which are tailored to a person's search terms and automatically accompany search results.

Toback's attorneys on Wednesday filed court documents saying he would discontinue the legal challenge. The legislator could not be immediately reached for comment on Friday.

Google spokesman Steve Langdon said the company was pleased the suit had been dismissed.

"If Mr. Toback would like to talk with us about something, he should consider approaching it with a phone call, letter or other common form of communication, not an irresponsible lawsuit," he wrote late Thursday in an e-mail to CNET News.com. "The claims he made in his lawsuit are some of the most far-fetched accusations we've ever heard."

Google prohibits child pornography in its products, removes all such content whenever its employees find or are made aware of it, and reports it to the proper law enforcement officials, Langdon had emphasized at the time the suit was filed.

The content policy for Google's AdWords sponsored links service says it broadly bars "promotion of child pornography or other non-consensual material." The company also offers a filtering tool called SafeSearch that aims to block offensive content in search results.

[mystereojones]

The Jeffrey Toback indictment must be soon

The only real reason this guy would drop this case would be if there was something damaging to his political stature. Indictment must be coming.

[emeraldgate]

really

Mr. J. Toback is the only politician that has even begung to display a bit of morality.
The fact of the matter is Goggle hosts over 3,660,000 websites of beastiality. One of these sites has over 900,000 images of this disgusting crap. Do you really believe that hundreds of thousands of North American women, everyday, willingly and knowingly, have sex with animals? These women are being drugged, and they are being raped, taped and sold on the Internet by various servers.
These servers are reaping huge profits from the sale of these sex slaves.
The Internet is the auction block for sex slavery.
No one is safe.
I inadvertently opened an email to these horrific assaults in 1999. I had no idea that such things even existed. In half an hour I found 5 women I recognized. I know that these women did not do this. I brought this to the attention of the police and they laughed about it. They replied, that "if those women didn't know about it, it couldn't hurt them could it." So, that, is a clear indication of the state of mind of our society, our police forces, and our government. Where men and women drug their neighbours, rape them with the family pet, record it, and sell them on the Internet, and it is not a crime, (according to the Ontario Provincial Police.)
Millions and millions, and millions of people are aware of it. They know what is happening in the nursing homes, in pallative care, in the Universities, in the shopping malls, the bars, the parks, the hospitals and the psychiatric wards. It is a multi-billion dollar industry.
I have emailed Google about this many times. They are aware that they are selling crimes. Many of the web sites boast that they are in fact rape sites.

There is no doubt in my mind that Mr. Toback cancelling the lawsuite has everything to do with a visit he most likely received by some very unsavory characters.

I commend him for trying.

Dianne Robinson

[fafafooey]

He was probably reminded of Google's Democrat contributions

Google head honchos contribute heavily to Democrats, so Toback was probably reminded (by Google and the DNC) about where their bread is buttered...

[SimpTech]

What would be nice for Google to do, would be to at the very least provide a manner to report such images if discovered by the average user and blocks websites who repeatedly provide (or allow to be provided) such images.

Where are the ethics!

[kael10]

It's true that Google wre deliberatly profiting from child porn. I am an antimafia campaigner ofnearly five years, & I have it from rival mafia that Google have heavy involvement with organised criminal pornographers globaly. (http://endmafia.com)
I have also been threatened for saying so.