Posted on 03/12/2006 11:42:21 PM PST by Jack Black
Google has now begun censoring web results in the USA. Previously they have admitted censoring sites in China. Like the Chinese censorship the sites being cut from the search results are anti-communist.
The following letter is from the web site "The Peoples Cube Worldwide" which is a parody-of-Marxism site.
Google Purges The People's Cube Worldwide
By Red Square
3/10/2006, 10:13 pm
Open letter #2 to Google from the People's Cube (posted on Google.com Help Center at 8:30pm on March 10, 2006
Dear comrades at Google:
At some point, quite recently, our popular site "The People's Cube" (ThePeoplesCube.com) was purged from Google search results. MSN , Yahoo and other search engines still have it - but Google has erased/blocked any link to the site in its database. One can still find links to us from other sites - but not even one from Google to ThePeoplesCube.com. We tried American, French, German, British, Australian, and Russian versions of Google - they used to give us traffic only a few days ago - but all we got was the same line in various languages: Sorry, no information is available for the URL thepeoplescube.com. And if we clicked on Find web pages from the site thepeoplescube.com we got Your search - site:thepeoplescube.com - did not match any documents.
The first time we saw this line it was written in Chinese - (Chinese characters not supported in browser removed by poster for clarity - JB)
We used to look up The People's Cube for fun in the communist-censored Google China only weeks ago - and reported it on our site in a story called Google's Great Leap Forward. Of course our site was blocked by the Chinese government, with Google's consent, along with legions of other Western sites - but we couldn't imagine that only a few weeks later we would get the same results in English. The last time we checked we still lived in the United States - not China - but hey, whoever controls the information is the boss.
If it were a glitch in an algorithm it might throw our rankings back to the end of the line - but this is a total removal. We suspect it is also a deliberate removal - much in the spirit of 1984-style historical revisionism - removal of a "people's enemy" from life and history. Sergei Brin's Russian parents might tell him stories of people in Stalinist Russia disappearing, along with all their pictures and records. "Out of sight, out of mind" - translated into Russian and then back into English, the idiom turns into "invisible lunatics." That also describes The People's Cube's search results in Google.
We can only think of three reasons for this:
Google is retaliating against sites that ridiculed its Google China project.
Google has begun to implement its Google China policies in the rest of the free world.
A left-leaning Google employee who's got access to the database was suffering a nervous breakdown over the mockery of Marxism on our site, and so he or she dastardly removed/blocked The People's Cube, hoping to "improve" the public discourse by silencing the competition.
You tell me which one it is.
The People's Cube is a business corporation selling products on the Internet. A drop in traffic, caused by a malicious tempering with search results, has affected sales and that gives us grounds for you-know-what.
We'll start by posting this letter on our site and wait for your reply. We'll gladly drop the matter and similarly drop this post into the "memory hole" if we get a quick response from you and our high rankings in Google get immediately restored. An apology would be nice as well.
If you can, we'd appreciate if you pass the following word to our former compatriot Sergei Brin: "Seriozhka, konchai duraka valat' - bylo vremia kogda my toboi gordilis'!" (Sergie, stop making a fool out of yourself, we used to be proud of you!)
Keep the Cube rolling,
Comrade Red Square
APPENDIX I Screenshots of search results in Google as of 03/08/06:
I get what I would expect to be the normal result.
I noticed that Googling "Communists for Kerry" returns the currect info too. :)
Maybe Google knows better than to f with me. (That's a joke.)
you are being stupid.
I note your non-responsive, obfuscating answers. I also acknowledge you personal attack on me.
how many conservatives found the Cube via Google?
how many conservatives could find the Cube via FR.
Those are irrelevant questions that you set up as strawman so you could proceed to knock them down.
The questions: How many businesses and persons have net benefited from Google compared to how many businesses and people have net benefited from FreeRepublic? Google has their foot in the door in China. Google has the potential to create several magnitude more value than FreeRepublic. How much inroad has FreeRepublic made into China? What's the traded stock price of FreeRepublic? I wonder what the fare market value of FreeRepublic is -- what would be the highest bid? How many people have heard of FreeRepublic compared to how many people have heard of Google?69
I did, and the results seem OK. Am I missing something?
OK.
no, zon
I will admit that "inexplicably obtuse" would have been a better word choice than "stupid"
however...
the Cube gets money from product sales
the Cube's products appeal only to conservatives.
There are a hell of a lot of conservatives on FR, and FR reaches/influences more conservatives than visit here directly.
what Google took away was easy search and access.
Links on FR and other conservative sites can swamp the traffic the Cube got via google.
It doesn't matter "how many people have heard of Google" - what matters is how many people hear of the Cube.
so, again: DUH.
Look for this line:
| Domain | return results from the site or domain |
|
This obviously Bill Gates's fault. Or Bush's. Probably both, in cahoots with each other.
It gives 2 links to thepeoplescube.com.
King Prout: What we are doing here, and what we may do within the laws (en-masse as only FReepers can) will be JUST.58
FreeRepublic's influence is miniscule compared to Google's influence. That's what my questions have been pointed at.
King Prout: we are not obliged to like Google's actions, and we are not obliged to avoid harming Google's stock value as an expression of our displeasure. free markets and public opinion, baby!60
You claim to know something about free market dynamics. Just answer the questions, honestly this time.
The questions: How many businesses and persons have net benefited from Google compared to how many businesses and people have net benefited from FreeRepublic? Google has their foot in the door in China. Google has the potential to create several magnitude more value than FreeRepublic. How much inroad has FreeRepublic made into China? What's the traded stock price of FreeRepublic? I wonder what the fare market value of FreeRepublic is -- what would be the highest bid? How many people have heard of FreeRepublic compared to how many people have heard of Google?69
You are deluding yourself if you think FreeRepublic has more influence than Google.
Re #69;
You make some salient points, to be sure.
And it's probably true that FR is not considered a real hot commodity on the NYSE.
But one thing to keep in mind, perhaps...
Who brought Komrade Dan Rather down when he tried to attack our President using forged documents?
Might it be the same cyber-community that gave the Swift Boat Vets a major venue of support and exposure in their bid to keep Hanoi John Kerry from taking America down from within (pretty much finishing the job that his Komrade Klinton had started)?
Hmmmm?
And do some pretty significant people in significant positions of influence keep close track of FR?
Oh yes, Mr. MacFeely; they do indeedie!
So even though FR isn't publicly traded - and that's just as well, IMHO, because somebody like George Soros could buy us out if we were - we ain't chopped liver by any means.
I wonder if the ISP and/or browser one is using makes any difference?
we ain't chopped liver by any means.
True. Politics is not the solution. Politics is the problem. How many people here associate themselves with political labels? Anyhow, Google assisted the Swift Boat Vets and Rathergate.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Top brass at Google just might be several giant steps ahead of pack.
pfft!
let me rephrase your neutronium-caliber density:
"Way more people have heard of CBS, 60 Minutes, and Dan Rather than have ever heard of Free Republic..."
just imagine if that had been the prevailing attitude back in September 2004.
siddown, Zon.
thank you - you see the incredible obtuseness and institutional amnesia of his attitude as well
"they have completely sold them out and that they are willing to work for the interests of foreign governments"
Money talks. The Chinese have a lot of it to offer turncoats.
When I type in "freerepublic.com" Goggle takes me directly to the "Latest Posts" page.
Using IE on Windoze98.
"Way more people have heard of CBS, 60 Minutes, and Dan Rather than have ever heard of Free Republic..."
Apples and Oranges. Nonetheless, Which has more influence? Which is dying and which is growing and which has grown the most in the past seven years? MSM is dying. FreeRepublic has grown. Google's influence dwarfs FreeRepublic. The final era of man's advance is underway and politics and religion are not the solution, the are the problem. Science and business are the solution.
Of the major institutions throughout history, during their times, which have caused the most deaths and destruction compared to which have created the most values and prosperity while shedding the least blood?
Politics and religion have caused, by far, the most death and destruction. Business and science have created the most values and easily the least bloodshed.
IMO, Google execs are like many other big businesses in that they use politics to their advantage. When politics ceases to be an advantage they'll abandon their participation.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.