The recently discovered awkwardness regarding Flickr's new SafeSearch feature seems to be getting even worse. Now Flickr has disabled SafeSearch options for users based in Singapore, Germany, Hong Kong and Korea. Those affected by the change will find SafeSearch permanently set to maximum, and will not be able to search for “unsafe” images – including screenshots or computer-generated images.

It would seem this move is related to local standards for obscenity and censorship of information, but honestly it still makes no sense. The censorship aspect is far worse than the simple blocking of non-photographic images, striking at the core of the service as a community. Sascha Pohflepp has a capsule review of the situation, for more detail see the new Against Censorship Flickr group.

For now, the best policy for Flickr users whose accounts have been reviewed as safe would be to leave all images marked as photography. Anything else will put your images in the middle of this controversy.