August 17, 2008

It has come to our attention that at some point in the past month or so, Google has implemented a new policy to disallow advertising for shark products, along with other endangered species. The policy is as follows:

Don't promote products obtained from endangered or threatened species.

Advertising is not permitted for products obtained from endangered or threatened species. This includes, but is not limited to, the sale of products derived from elephants, sharks, tigers, whales, rhinoceroses, or dolphins.

You can find it here

This is great news. This came about because many people wrote emails to request such a policy after ads for shark fin were seen on Google. We hope that our petition, along with the efforts of other groups and individuals, will eventually persuade Alibaba to do the same. Alibaba, in which Yahoo owns a significant portion, is a Chinese online marketplace that allows the sale of shark fin products.

Congratulations to Google for doing the right thing!