[rbarooah]

There obviously is a trade-off between the strength of the language and the number of people who will click through.

Maybe, but I'm not arguing about the 'strength' of the language. I'm arguing about the accuracy of it.

The messages are accurate, Twitpic was unfortunately a distributor of malware. Here's a copy and paste of the current detailed report.

Actually, this report proves my point. Twitpic is implicated because ad networks they embed have distributed malware.

This is a perfectly good reason for warning people, but it is not justification for calling Twitpic "A known distributor of malware" - a statement which portrays Twitpic as an intentional agent in this.

If I called you "A known distributor of falsehoods", and my evidence was that you made a few mistakes on a math test, and mistyped the a URL in one of your postings, I imagine most people would consider that a misrepresentation, because the phrase "A known distributor" implies agency and intent.

Another analogy would be if a grocery store carried a batch of improperly pasteurized milk from that people got food poisoning from.

Calling the grocery store "A known poisoner" would be an obvious misrepresentation.

In just the same way, Twitpic is not "a known distributor" of malware.

I'm not sure why you're placing the business interests of Twitpic over the safety of users, but I disagree with your attitude.

You are simply misrepresenting my position. You keep making a false dichotomy, as though the users safety and accurate messaging are in conflict with one another. This is not true.

It is perfectly possible for Google to strongly state their opinion about the dangers of clicking through without misrepresenting twitpic.

I think that the communications of those in a position of power should be critiqued, and I think that misleading people 'for their own protection' is almost never justified and certainly shouldn't be casually accepted as a necessary tradeoff.

I disagree with your attitude too, but I guess at least we know where we stand.