Yahoo Bans Flickr User for Criticizing Obama

Don’t store your photos on Flickr. You could lose everything just like Shephard Johnson did. Via Truthdig, Johnson’s paid Flickr-Pro account and more than 1,000 of his photos suddenly disappeared after he posted critical comments about Obama’s support for a bill to prevent release of torture photos. According to Gawker,

Johnson was browsing the official White House photostream one night when he decided to post a politically-charged comment. Then another, then another. Soon, without warning, Yahoo’s photo-sharing service deleted his account, complete with 1,200 pictures.

An unrepentant Yahoo won’t say what, exactly, Johnson did wrong. His comments were about Barack Obama’s support of a bill allowing the government to suppress torture photos. They were attached to seemingly relevant images from the president’s recent trip to Cairo to ring in a new era of U.S.-Middle Eastern relations.

“I thought, this is an opportunity I can use to let the administration know how I feel about some of its policies,” Johnson told us in a phone interview.

WTF?! Is this part of the Obama administration’s new “cybersecurity” program? Or does Yahoo think Dear Leader’s popularity is so soft that it can’t survive a little public protest from one guy on Flickr?

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