Maybe it's also retroactive.
Back when linking was a new phenomenon it was entirely possible that in addition
to not linking to sites that might in some way be objectionable (to someone),
an educational site might ask, or demand of, objectionable sites not to link to
them as well. After all, if a site gets tainted by the fact that it contains links
to (let's say) a pornographic site, isn't it also tainted by that same pornographic
site linking to it?
I'm not aware of any cases in which institutions requested (or sued) particular
web sites to remove links to the web site of that institution, and I doubt that
today something like that would happen, but it's certainly possible. I can quite
readily imagine a situation in which a site that sees itself as independent or
anti-establishment might request/demand of an established and well respected institution
that it remove a link to their site because it might give them too much of an
aura of respectability. And of course there's also a certain status involved in
being on somebody's blacklist - Brecht, in a very different context, wrote what
is essentially the classic on this sort of situation (and we quoted him over
three years ago).
Go to: Guilt by hyperlink?