Google to remove links to racist Australian website

Google has agreed to remove links to a website containing "extremely racist" comments about Aboriginals. Photo / Getty Images

CANBERRAP - Google has agreed to take down links to a website that promotes racist views of indigenous Australians.

Aboriginal man Steve Hodder-Watt recently discovered the US-based site by searching "Aboriginal and Encyclopedia" in the search engine.

He tried to modify the entry on Encyclopedia Dramatica, a satirical and extremely racist version of Wikipedia, but was blocked from doing so.

Mr Hodder-Watt then undertook legal action, that resulted in Google acknowledging its legal responsibility to remove the offensive site.

His lawyer, George Newhouse, says the site is "one of the most offensive sorts of racial vilification you could possibly find".

"It portrays indigenous Australians in the most unsavoury light possible, and you wouldn't want a child stumbling across it," he told ABC Radio.

Mr Newhouse says Google agreed to take the link down after he filed an official complaint to the Australian Human Rights Commission.

"Lo and behold they agreed last night to take down the sites."

Mr Newhouse believes the site would be filtered under the federal government's mandatory filter.

"Sites that promote racial vilification would actually fall within that description (illegal sites) and therefore would be filtered."

The federal government plans to introduce legislation this year requiring all service providers to ban "refused classification" material.

- AAP