Diego Maradona Doesn’t Yahoo! In Argentina

It seems that the Argentinian soccer squad isn’t the only thing that could be without Diego Maradona. A cadre of judges have issued over 100 restraining orders blocking certain internet sites “in an attempt to expunge allegedly inappropriate references to some of the country’s most recognizable names.” So Yahoo!–and to a lesser extent, Google– have decided to start filtering his name along with others. So, for example, if you did a search for “Maradona+Crazy Motherfucker,” all you’d get would be Yahoo! news results and not any independent voices out in the web and blogosphere.
Oh my God. Think of the hits our site would lose.

This ongoing net censorship crusade came to a head in September, when Yahoo!, Google, and other search engines were ordered to remove vast swaths of content involving Maradona and high-profile judge María Servini de Cubría.

Google, however, is still returning Maradona results. Millions of them. “If a judge comes to us and says that particular pages must be blocked, we will block them,” Alberto Arebalos, Google’s director of Latin American global communications and public affairs, told The Reg from his office in Argentina. “But there is no reason to block all references to Maradona.”

Considering he’s got a whole church following in Argentina, we’re actually not shocked that the judges would order this, but we are surprised that Yahoo! would comply so thoroughly. Apparently a lawyer named Martin Leguizamon Peña works on behalf of his celebrity clients to get injunctions like this made, and is the sun around which most of them are made in Argentina. And if Diego does quit managing the team, he’s going to be worth every penny trying to deflect all the shit thrown Maradona’s way, online and off.
Earlier: That Was Quick—Maradona Reportedly Threating To Quit Argentina Post Before It Begins
Maradona rubbed from Yahoo! web by Argentinian judge [The Register]