The Australian Sex Party is up in arms over what it claims as censorship from anti-filter campaigner Google. The search engine company reclassified the party's lampoon advertisement "Jerk Choices" as Adult Only content in spite the fact that it has already aired on primetime on free to air television.

The campaign, which is meant to highlight wowsers in Australian society, had already appeared on shows such as The 7pm Project and Gruen Nation. The advertisement was also used in an AdWords campaign through Google.

Fiona Patten, the Sex Party's president, says that the advertisement, which had been considered suitable for general release, was suddenly reclassified as Adults Only two days before the election. Patten says that the change hurt the campaign's viewing numbers.

"Given the number of times Google has spoken out against censorship over the past year in the wake of the government's internet filtering plans, this is the last thing we would expect from them," Patten said.

The reclassification was said to have taken the ad out of circulation when advertising for the elections was at its heaviest. Google did not give the party any warning about the reclassification. It also did not tell the political party what measures it can take to have the original rating reinstated.

Patten also said that when she called Google, a recorded message said that the company now only receives complaints through email. After sending an email to Google, she received an automated response that said her method of complaint was no longer valid and that all enquiries needed to go through the Help Centre.

The Sex Party has been a strong contributor to the grassroots campaign against the goverment's mandatory internet filter and the campaign for an R18+ classification for video games. In the Northern Territory, the party was able to secure more than five per cent of the primary vote in the senate, which gave the organization official party status.