One Step Ahead

A Web site critical of Australian Prime Minister John Howard appears to have been taken down, after claims that it was created by a PR firm with links to the oppostion Labor Party. I read this story in today's on-line version of The Australian newspaper, but the electrons had hardly stopped vibrating before the Web site had been taken down from the Internet.

Two opposition political parties - Labor and the Greens - had linked to the Web site from their own sites and e-mail newsletters, but claimed that they were not the creators of the site.

I'm not going to get into the political debate behind this issue, and now that the offending Web site is no longer on-line, it's difficult to comment on the site itself (Actually, the site is still available if you know how to get to it, but the intent is obviously to remove it, so I won't go into the details here).

However, I'd like to point out just how careful you have to be when linking to other Web sites. If Labor and the Greens linked to the site, knowing it contained potentially libellous material, they were just plain stupid.

Linking to another Web site does give it an implied endorsement in most people's eyes, unless you say otherwise. That's why some Web sites even pop up a window when linking to an external site, warning users that they are going to an external site.

That's OK, but I don't think it's necessary to go that far. Just make sure that when you link to somebody else's Web site, make it clear why you're linking to that site - especially if there's any criticism on that site.