Racially Offensive Search Terms To Be Banned By EBay

By Chris Richardson
Staff Writer
Article Date: 2004-11-18

Internet auction house eBay has announced that they will be taking preventative action against users searching for racially sensitive items. Any search conducted using any keywords that Ebay identifies as racially derogatory will be met with a pop up informing the user about their error.

According to a report that appeared in CNSNews.com, requests from the National League of Cities help bring about this change. The pop up will inform the offending user "the words are not acceptable for usage on eBay." CNSNews conducted a search using terms that could be considered racially derogatory and found certain items for sale that contain these words. As stated in their piece, these terms were usually contained in artwork or books.

As of now, Ebay hasn't stated how wide of a net they have cast in order to combat the use of racially motivated keywords. However, a quote from John Pionke, a media relations official with the National League of Cities, sheds a little light, "I think at this stage we were concerned about certain words that were popping up. They might expand that themselves, eBay, but we're targeting this particular area (racially offensive terms) right now."

Thanks to Andy Beal for pointing this out.

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About the Author:
Chris Richardson is a search engine writer and editor for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest search news.

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