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City Web Site Lists Services: Sewer, Police, Schools, Porn...

by Terrence O'Brien on September 16, 2009 at 12:41 PM

Governments and the Internet go together like water and vinegar. When world leaders aren't accidentally posting sensitive information about their country's nuclear sites, or "losing" hundreds of e-mails connected to an ongoing legal investigation, they're often breaking video-sharing sites, or blocking services like RSS altogether. One branch of the U.S. government was even without Internet access until 2008. (Although, judging from the aforementioned instances of complete buffoonery, it might be better that way.)

Now, Germans have their own tale of an embarrassing government mishap publicly posted on the Internet. According to Reuters, the official site for the city of Gelsenkirchen temporarily listed pornography as one of the services provided by the local administration. Of course, the whole thing started as a simple mistake when an employee, compiling a list of services, thought there was a chance that brothel owners -- when looking up information about the city's sex tax -- might search for 'pornography.'

The error has since been rectified, but we're sure it wasn't before a few good citizens had gotten their hopes up for some government-subsidized entertainment. While our own government isn't taking on the likes of Hustler just yet, with video gaming and social networking under its belt, it may only be a matter of time. [From: Reuters]

Tags: government, porn, pornography, top

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