Encyclopedia Dramatica Drama: Website Targeted by Australian Government

By: Crimesider Staff
Topics: Daily Blotter

Encyclopedia Dramatica Logo

NEW YORK (CBS) The website Encyclopedia Dramatica has been targeted by the Australian Human Rights Commission, a government agency, for containing racist content.

In January, at the government's request, Google Australia pulled down links to an article on Australian Aborigines contained on the site, and now the commission may file charges against the site's American owner.

For the unfamiliar, Encyclopedia Dramatica is like Wikipedia, except instead of striving for a neutral point-of-view, contributors aim for an offensive and adolescent one.

Think South Park. Now, multiply the offensiveness of South Park by the highest number you can think of. There: you're still well short of how offensive Encyclopedia Dramatica is. An example: the "encyclopedia" has a list of funny things which includes the Holocaust and cancer.

Here's a link to the site for the strong stomached - consider yourself warned: Encyclopedia Dramatica.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the commission says that the site violates a 1975 Australia law, the Racial Discrimination Act, which, according to the commission's website, "makes racial vilification against the law. This gives additional protection to people who are being publicly and openly offended, insulted, humiliated or intimidated because of their race, colour, or national or ethnic origin."

The article on Aborigines, a minority group in Australia, is plainly full of racist content, which won't be quoted here. The site claims the article, like the website itself, is satire. The government of Australia considers it hate speech, and has alerted the site's owner, Joseph Evers, that he could face fines and jail time - despite the fact that he is American, located in America, and breaking no American laws.

In a blog post Monday, Evers writes that the article will not be taken down, and that "Encyclopedia Dramatica will never be censored in any way."

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by Whut_Lulzy March 17, 2010 6:25 PM EDT: LULZ the Australian Government is the biggest troll evar!!; Reply to this comment


by Dr. Rice March 17, 2010 4:00 PM EDT: I vastly enjoy how you target Encyclopedia Dramatica as a hate site and fail to report on how that Australia continues to restrict its citizens rights to other sites that have no reason to be filtered under their anti child pornography act.

I am unsure why the Australian government is now so against racism despite allowing their citizens openly attacking minorities in the past simply because they were minorities. Maybe they think they can erase the recent past with this ban.; Reply to this comment


by -Kuha- March 17, 2010 2:18 PM EDT: The site is a joke, made of jokes, by people who just want to laugh for people who just want to laugh too.

If they can't take jokes and also think that what is wrote there are the real opinions of the authors then they are the ones with problems... Several countries ad groups are "attacked" on that website, I should be offeded by it too (I'm not going to mention why here) but I'm not, in fact I visit it a lot and love it.

It's so sad that Joshep Evers can't visit his family living in Australia anymore.; Reply to this comment