New York Times readers in Britain may have been disappointed if they attempted to read the lead story on the NYTimes.com website due to self-censorship exploiting the site's regional ad targeting technology.

The Times reports on the issue and includes its justification from legal counsel, referring to "British law that prohibits publication of prejudicial information about the defendants prior to trial." The Times was able to keep British readers from the article by making use of its in-house targeted ads delivery system, based partly on user geography.

The Times report states that "the paper could already discern the internet address of users connecting to the site to deliver targeted marketing, and could therefore deliver targeted editorial content as well."

The censored article did contain specific details of the terrorist plot to bomb two trans-Atlantic flights between Britain and the United States, and details of the alleged terrorists themselves. According to British law, some of the information could be seen as prejudicial against the defendants.

Online news organs have often maintained that they cannot cave to parochial legal whims because they produce a single, global version of their content, expecting limitations to be directly introduced by governments like China, Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Times's facile use of ad targeting technology may now focus on the Times and other publications a higher expectation of self-censorship across myriad jurisdictions.