Is Google censoring C99P?

Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 12:28pm

You've probably heard by now about Google's "War against fake news" that just happens to target left-wing web sites.

A growing number of leading left-wing websites have confirmed that their search traffic from Google has plunged in recent months, adding to evidence that Google, under the cover of a fraudulent campaign against fake news, is implementing a program of systematic and widespread censorship.
Truthout, a not-for-profit news website that focuses on political, social, and ecological developments from a left progressive standpoint, had its readership plunge by 35 percent since April. The Real News , a nonprofit video news and documentary service, has had its search traffic fall by 37 percent. Another site, Common Dreams , last week told the WSWS that its search traffic had fallen by up to 50 percent.
As extreme as these sudden drops in search traffic are, they do not equal the nearly 70 percent drop in traffic from Google seen by the WSWS.
“This is political censorship of the worst sort; it’s just an excuse to suppress political viewpoints,” said Robert Epstein, a former editor in chief of Psychology Today and noted expert on Google.

This morning I did a Google search for "McResistance" and this is what I got.

Notice the first result is relevant, and then a bunch of unrelated garbage (that continue for several pages).
So out of curiosity I did a DuckDuckGo search for "McResistance".

Notice how C99P is the first two results, and there are a lot more relevant articles.
So I did more tests.
Here I searched for "Democratic Party Insurgency".

Once again, only the first result in Google is relevant.

Once again, DuckDuckGo has C99P as the first result, plus it has a lot more relevant results.

What does everyone think?

Tags:

google. censorship

Vote

Comments

Submitted by dance you monster on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 12:34pm

JtC?

Got some numbers for us?

Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 1:09pm

The next question

@dance you monster
is there anything we can do about it?
Is there any place we can file a protest, at least?

Submitted by Ellen North on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 9:16pm

@dance you monster

@dance you monster

Just to mention high enough that this is easily visible, even if this is likely covered lower down:

https://news.server2u.net/google-changes-search-algorithm-bury-fake-news/

April 26, 2017
Google changes its search algorithm to bury fake news

Bloomberg reports that Google is making changes to the secret algorithms behind its search engine to demote fake news.

The company is also encouraging its 10,000-plus “raters” — the staff that assesses search results — to flag “low-quality” content.
The change comes from “Project Owl,” an internal group started in December after the 2016 US presidential elections. Fake news sites had successfully gamed Google’s algorithms to leap to the top of search queries, even making their way into Google’s feature snippets — the outlined box that gives a single answer to search results. ...

Back in Dec, it had been a sudden burst of right-wing/hate sites gaming the system which they were trying to prevent to protect the public. But somehow, it hit progressive sites instead, as the real danger to The Psychopaths/Parasites That Be.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/04/google-democracy-trut...

Be careful what you search for... Google’s predictive questions can lead you down some dark roads.

Carole Cadwalladr

Sunday 4 December 2016

Google, democracy and the truth about internet search
Tech-savvy rightwingers have been able to ‘game’ the algorithms of internet giants and create a new reality where Hitler is a good guy, Jews are evil and… Donald Trump becomes president

This is what I'd consider a general population must-read, in full at source, if at all possible. If they can find this in an internet search...

https://mronline.org/2017/07/28/new-google-algorithm-restricts-access-to...

New Google algorithm restricts access to left-wing, progressive web sites
Posted Jul 28, 2017 by Eds.

Originally published: World Socialist Website by Andre Damon and Niles Niemuth (July 27, 2017)

In the three months since Internet monopoly Google announced plans to keep users from accessing “fake news,” the global traffic rankings of a broad range of left-wing, progressive, anti-war and democratic rights organizations have fallen significantly.

On April 25, 2017, Google announced that it had implemented changes to its search service to make it harder for users to access what it called “low-quality” information such as “conspiracy theories” and “fake news.”

The company said in a blog post that the central purpose of the change to its search algorithm was to give the search giant greater control in identifying content deemed objectionable by its guidelines. It declared that it had “improved our evaluation methods and made algorithmic updates” in order “to surface more authoritative content.”

Google continued, “Last month, we updated our Search Quality Rater Guidelines to provide more detailed examples of low-quality webpages for raters to appropriately flag.” These moderators are instructed to flag “upsetting user experiences,” including pages that present “conspiracy theories,” unless “the query clearly indicates the user is seeking an alternative viewpoint.”

Google does not explain precisely what it means by the term “conspiracy theory.” Using the broad and amorphous category of fake news, the aim of the change to Google’s search system is to restrict access to alternative web sites, whose coverage and interpretation of events conflict with those of such establishment media outlets as the New York Times and the Washington Post.

By flagging content in such a way that it does not appear in the first one or two pages of a search result, Google is able to effectively block users’ access to it. Given the fact that vast amounts of web traffic are influenced by search results, Google is able to effectively conceal or bury content to which it objects through the manipulation of search rankings.

Just last month, the European Commission fined the company $2.7 billion for manipulating search results to inappropriately direct users to its own comparison shopping service, Google Shopping. Now, it appears that Google is using these criminal methods to block users from accessing political viewpoints the company deems objectionable.

The World Socialist Web Site has been targeted by Google’s new “evaluation methods.” While in April 2017, 422,460 visits to the WSWS originated from Google searches, the figure has dropped to an estimated 120,000 this month, a fall of more than 70 percent.

Even when using search terms such as “socialist” and “socialism,” readers have informed us that they find it increasingly difficult to locate the World Socialist Web Site in Google searches.

(My insert: graph at source)

According to Google’s webmaster tools service, the number of searches resulting in users seeing content from the World Socialist Web Site (that is, a WSWS article appeared in a Google search) fell from 467,890 a day to 138,275 over the past three months. The average position of articles in searches, meanwhile, fell from 15.9 to 37.2 over the same period.

David North, chairperson of the International Editorial Board of the WSWS, stated that Google is engaged in political censorship.

“The World Socialist Web Site has been in existence for nearly 20 years,” he said, “and it has developed a large international audience. During this past spring, the number of individual visits to the WSWS each month exceeded 900,000.

“While a significant percentage of our readers enter the WSWS directly, many web users access the site through search engines, of which Google is the most widely used. There is no innocent explanation for the extraordinarily sharp fall in readers, virtually overnight, coming from Google searches.

“Google’s claim that it is protecting readers from ‘fake news’ is a politically motivated lie. Google, a massive monopoly, with the closest ties to the state and intelligence agencies, is blocking access to the WSWS and other left and progressive web sites through a system of rigged searches.”

In the three months since Google implemented the changes to its search engine, fewer people have accessed left-wing and anti-war news sites. Based on information available on Alexa analytics, other sites that have experienced sharp drops in ranking include WikiLeaks, Alternet, Counterpunch, Global Research, Consortium News and Truthout. Even prominent democratic rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International appear to have been hit. ...

...On April 7, Bloomberg News reported that Google was working directly with the Washington Post and the New York Times to “fact-check” articles and eliminate “fake news.” This was followed by Google’s new search methodology.

Three months later, out of the 17 sites declared to be “fake news” by the Washington Post ’s discredited blacklist, 14 had their global ranking fall. The average decline of the global reach of all of these sites is 25 percent, and some sites saw their global reach fall by as much as 60 percent.

“The actions of Google constitute political censorship and are a blatant attack on free speech,” North stated. “At a time when public distrust of establishment media is widespread, this corporate giant is exploiting its monopolistic position to restrict public access to a broad spectrum of news and critical analysis.”

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by Cant Stop the M... on Tue, 08/22/2017 - 7:02am

@Ellen North Back in Dec, it had

@Ellen North Back in Dec, it had been a sudden burst of right-wing/hate sites gaming the system which they were trying to prevent to protect the public. But somehow, it hit progressive sites instead, as the real danger to The Psychopaths/Parasites That Be.

Amazing! I could have never predicted!

#1

Just to mention high enough that this is easily visible, even if this is likely covered lower down:

https://news.server2u.net/google-changes-search-algorithm-bury-fake-news/

April 26, 2017
Google changes its search algorithm to bury fake news

Bloomberg reports that Google is making changes to the secret algorithms behind its search engine to demote fake news.

The company is also encouraging its 10,000-plus “raters” — the staff that assesses search results — to flag “low-quality” content.
The change comes from “Project Owl,” an internal group started in December after the 2016 US presidential elections. Fake news sites had successfully gamed Google’s algorithms to leap to the top of search queries, even making their way into Google’s feature snippets — the outlined box that gives a single answer to search results. ...

Back in Dec, it had been a sudden burst of right-wing/hate sites gaming the system which they were trying to prevent to protect the public. But somehow, it hit progressive sites instead, as the real danger to The Psychopaths/Parasites That Be.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/04/google-democracy-trut...

Be careful what you search for... Google’s predictive questions can lead you down some dark roads.

Carole Cadwalladr

Sunday 4 December 2016

Google, democracy and the truth about internet search
Tech-savvy rightwingers have been able to ‘game’ the algorithms of internet giants and create a new reality where Hitler is a good guy, Jews are evil and… Donald Trump becomes president

This is what I'd consider a general population must-read, in full at source, if at all possible. If they can find this in an internet search...

https://mronline.org/2017/07/28/new-google-algorithm-restricts-access-to...

New Google algorithm restricts access to left-wing, progressive web sites
Posted Jul 28, 2017 by Eds.

Originally published: World Socialist Website by Andre Damon and Niles Niemuth (July 27, 2017)

In the three months since Internet monopoly Google announced plans to keep users from accessing “fake news,” the global traffic rankings of a broad range of left-wing, progressive, anti-war and democratic rights organizations have fallen significantly.

On April 25, 2017, Google announced that it had implemented changes to its search service to make it harder for users to access what it called “low-quality” information such as “conspiracy theories” and “fake news.”

The company said in a blog post that the central purpose of the change to its search algorithm was to give the search giant greater control in identifying content deemed objectionable by its guidelines. It declared that it had “improved our evaluation methods and made algorithmic updates” in order “to surface more authoritative content.”

Google continued, “Last month, we updated our Search Quality Rater Guidelines to provide more detailed examples of low-quality webpages for raters to appropriately flag.” These moderators are instructed to flag “upsetting user experiences,” including pages that present “conspiracy theories,” unless “the query clearly indicates the user is seeking an alternative viewpoint.”

Google does not explain precisely what it means by the term “conspiracy theory.” Using the broad and amorphous category of fake news, the aim of the change to Google’s search system is to restrict access to alternative web sites, whose coverage and interpretation of events conflict with those of such establishment media outlets as the New York Times and the Washington Post.

By flagging content in such a way that it does not appear in the first one or two pages of a search result, Google is able to effectively block users’ access to it. Given the fact that vast amounts of web traffic are influenced by search results, Google is able to effectively conceal or bury content to which it objects through the manipulation of search rankings.

Just last month, the European Commission fined the company $2.7 billion for manipulating search results to inappropriately direct users to its own comparison shopping service, Google Shopping. Now, it appears that Google is using these criminal methods to block users from accessing political viewpoints the company deems objectionable.

The World Socialist Web Site has been targeted by Google’s new “evaluation methods.” While in April 2017, 422,460 visits to the WSWS originated from Google searches, the figure has dropped to an estimated 120,000 this month, a fall of more than 70 percent.

Even when using search terms such as “socialist” and “socialism,” readers have informed us that they find it increasingly difficult to locate the World Socialist Web Site in Google searches.

(My insert: graph at source)

According to Google’s webmaster tools service, the number of searches resulting in users seeing content from the World Socialist Web Site (that is, a WSWS article appeared in a Google search) fell from 467,890 a day to 138,275 over the past three months. The average position of articles in searches, meanwhile, fell from 15.9 to 37.2 over the same period.

David North, chairperson of the International Editorial Board of the WSWS, stated that Google is engaged in political censorship.

“The World Socialist Web Site has been in existence for nearly 20 years,” he said, “and it has developed a large international audience. During this past spring, the number of individual visits to the WSWS each month exceeded 900,000.

“While a significant percentage of our readers enter the WSWS directly, many web users access the site through search engines, of which Google is the most widely used. There is no innocent explanation for the extraordinarily sharp fall in readers, virtually overnight, coming from Google searches.

“Google’s claim that it is protecting readers from ‘fake news’ is a politically motivated lie. Google, a massive monopoly, with the closest ties to the state and intelligence agencies, is blocking access to the WSWS and other left and progressive web sites through a system of rigged searches.”

In the three months since Google implemented the changes to its search engine, fewer people have accessed left-wing and anti-war news sites. Based on information available on Alexa analytics, other sites that have experienced sharp drops in ranking include WikiLeaks, Alternet, Counterpunch, Global Research, Consortium News and Truthout. Even prominent democratic rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International appear to have been hit. ...

...On April 7, Bloomberg News reported that Google was working directly with the Washington Post and the New York Times to “fact-check” articles and eliminate “fake news.” This was followed by Google’s new search methodology.

Three months later, out of the 17 sites declared to be “fake news” by the Washington Post ’s discredited blacklist, 14 had their global ranking fall. The average decline of the global reach of all of these sites is 25 percent, and some sites saw their global reach fall by as much as 60 percent.

“The actions of Google constitute political censorship and are a blatant attack on free speech,” North stated. “At a time when public distrust of establishment media is widespread, this corporate giant is exploiting its monopolistic position to restrict public access to a broad spectrum of news and critical analysis.”

—

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Submitted by Cant Stop the M... on Tue, 08/22/2017 - 7:03am

@Ellen North Three months later, out

@Ellen North Three months later, out of the 17 sites declared to be “fake news” by the Washington Post ’s discredited blacklist, 14 had their global ranking fall.

What a coincidence! It turned out just like the CIA wanted!

#1

Just to mention high enough that this is easily visible, even if this is likely covered lower down:

https://news.server2u.net/google-changes-search-algorithm-bury-fake-news/

April 26, 2017
Google changes its search algorithm to bury fake news

Bloomberg reports that Google is making changes to the secret algorithms behind its search engine to demote fake news.

The company is also encouraging its 10,000-plus “raters” — the staff that assesses search results — to flag “low-quality” content.
The change comes from “Project Owl,” an internal group started in December after the 2016 US presidential elections. Fake news sites had successfully gamed Google’s algorithms to leap to the top of search queries, even making their way into Google’s feature snippets — the outlined box that gives a single answer to search results. ...

Back in Dec, it had been a sudden burst of right-wing/hate sites gaming the system which they were trying to prevent to protect the public. But somehow, it hit progressive sites instead, as the real danger to The Psychopaths/Parasites That Be.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/04/google-democracy-trut...

Be careful what you search for... Google’s predictive questions can lead you down some dark roads.

Carole Cadwalladr

Sunday 4 December 2016

Google, democracy and the truth about internet search
Tech-savvy rightwingers have been able to ‘game’ the algorithms of internet giants and create a new reality where Hitler is a good guy, Jews are evil and… Donald Trump becomes president

This is what I'd consider a general population must-read, in full at source, if at all possible. If they can find this in an internet search...

https://mronline.org/2017/07/28/new-google-algorithm-restricts-access-to...

New Google algorithm restricts access to left-wing, progressive web sites
Posted Jul 28, 2017 by Eds.

Originally published: World Socialist Website by Andre Damon and Niles Niemuth (July 27, 2017)

In the three months since Internet monopoly Google announced plans to keep users from accessing “fake news,” the global traffic rankings of a broad range of left-wing, progressive, anti-war and democratic rights organizations have fallen significantly.

On April 25, 2017, Google announced that it had implemented changes to its search service to make it harder for users to access what it called “low-quality” information such as “conspiracy theories” and “fake news.”

The company said in a blog post that the central purpose of the change to its search algorithm was to give the search giant greater control in identifying content deemed objectionable by its guidelines. It declared that it had “improved our evaluation methods and made algorithmic updates” in order “to surface more authoritative content.”

Google continued, “Last month, we updated our Search Quality Rater Guidelines to provide more detailed examples of low-quality webpages for raters to appropriately flag.” These moderators are instructed to flag “upsetting user experiences,” including pages that present “conspiracy theories,” unless “the query clearly indicates the user is seeking an alternative viewpoint.”

Google does not explain precisely what it means by the term “conspiracy theory.” Using the broad and amorphous category of fake news, the aim of the change to Google’s search system is to restrict access to alternative web sites, whose coverage and interpretation of events conflict with those of such establishment media outlets as the New York Times and the Washington Post.

By flagging content in such a way that it does not appear in the first one or two pages of a search result, Google is able to effectively block users’ access to it. Given the fact that vast amounts of web traffic are influenced by search results, Google is able to effectively conceal or bury content to which it objects through the manipulation of search rankings.

Just last month, the European Commission fined the company $2.7 billion for manipulating search results to inappropriately direct users to its own comparison shopping service, Google Shopping. Now, it appears that Google is using these criminal methods to block users from accessing political viewpoints the company deems objectionable.

The World Socialist Web Site has been targeted by Google’s new “evaluation methods.” While in April 2017, 422,460 visits to the WSWS originated from Google searches, the figure has dropped to an estimated 120,000 this month, a fall of more than 70 percent.

Even when using search terms such as “socialist” and “socialism,” readers have informed us that they find it increasingly difficult to locate the World Socialist Web Site in Google searches.

(My insert: graph at source)

According to Google’s webmaster tools service, the number of searches resulting in users seeing content from the World Socialist Web Site (that is, a WSWS article appeared in a Google search) fell from 467,890 a day to 138,275 over the past three months. The average position of articles in searches, meanwhile, fell from 15.9 to 37.2 over the same period.

David North, chairperson of the International Editorial Board of the WSWS, stated that Google is engaged in political censorship.

“The World Socialist Web Site has been in existence for nearly 20 years,” he said, “and it has developed a large international audience. During this past spring, the number of individual visits to the WSWS each month exceeded 900,000.

“While a significant percentage of our readers enter the WSWS directly, many web users access the site through search engines, of which Google is the most widely used. There is no innocent explanation for the extraordinarily sharp fall in readers, virtually overnight, coming from Google searches.

“Google’s claim that it is protecting readers from ‘fake news’ is a politically motivated lie. Google, a massive monopoly, with the closest ties to the state and intelligence agencies, is blocking access to the WSWS and other left and progressive web sites through a system of rigged searches.”

In the three months since Google implemented the changes to its search engine, fewer people have accessed left-wing and anti-war news sites. Based on information available on Alexa analytics, other sites that have experienced sharp drops in ranking include WikiLeaks, Alternet, Counterpunch, Global Research, Consortium News and Truthout. Even prominent democratic rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International appear to have been hit. ...

...On April 7, Bloomberg News reported that Google was working directly with the Washington Post and the New York Times to “fact-check” articles and eliminate “fake news.” This was followed by Google’s new search methodology.

Three months later, out of the 17 sites declared to be “fake news” by the Washington Post ’s discredited blacklist, 14 had their global ranking fall. The average decline of the global reach of all of these sites is 25 percent, and some sites saw their global reach fall by as much as 60 percent.

“The actions of Google constitute political censorship and are a blatant attack on free speech,” North stated. “At a time when public distrust of establishment media is widespread, this corporate giant is exploiting its monopolistic position to restrict public access to a broad spectrum of news and critical analysis.”

—

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Submitted by Ellen North on Tue, 08/22/2017 - 1:00pm

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal @Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal

Exactly! Who'da thunk that CIA-leased propaganda rags like the Washington Post would want CIA propaganda free of competition with reality on the internet as well?

Edit to add (probably unnecessary for anyone here) explanatory quote from last article:

... Using the broad and amorphous category of fake news, the aim of the change to Google’s search system is to restrict access to alternative web sites, whose coverage and interpretation of events conflict with those of such establishment media outlets as the New York Times and the Washington Post. ...

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by divineorder on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 12:38pm

Thanks for the study. Was wondering if this might be the

case. We have been using duck duck go for a couple of years and been quite happy with it for the most part.

—

A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Submitted by nosleep4u on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 12:49pm

For further comparison:

Bing Mcresistance:
C99 has the top two results.
Several other first-page results are relevant.

Bing Democratic Party Insurgency:
C99 at top spot.
Several other first-page results are relevant.

Yahoo Mcresistance:
C99 at spots 1 and 4.
A few other first-page results are relevant.

Yahoo Democratic Party Insurgency:
C99 at spots 1 and 5.
Several other first-page results are relevant.

It seems certain that Google is censoring.

Submitted by divineorder on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 3:34pm

Need more exposure of this sh#t.

@nosleep4u

And a must read on how $Googl #Google search #algorithm enables spread of misinformation & right wing bias. https://t.co/cMTKO9X320

— AmericanAmnesia (@luchadorporpaz) August 2, 2017

—

A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.

Submitted by smiley7 on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 12:54pm

Damn, good work, gjohnsit! n/t

Submitted by Meteor Man on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 1:15pm

Come Over To The Duck Side

DuckDuckGo app:

https://duckduckgo.com/app

—

"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Submitted by JtC on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 1:21pm

Huh...

sure seems to be the case. Good catch, g. Doesn't really surprise me though.

Probably the best suggestion is to boycott everything Google, and let them know why.

Submitted by eyo on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 3:31pm

and let their robots know why

@JtC here's my contribution from a while back:

bye felicia!

Submitted by edg on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 1:43pm

Truthout. Yech.

I got banned from Truthout because of a comment thread wherein another commenter was calling me names and belittling me. When I had enough, I posted a final comment "Goodbye, loser" and got banned.

Submitted by Steven D on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 2:05pm

Of course they are

I assumed your title was a rhetorical question.

—

"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott

Submitted by Timmethy2.0 on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 2:19pm

They misrepresent themselves as being unbiased

@Steven D

Many people assume that when they do a Google search they're going to see results that rank from most relevant to least relevant. At least with MSM TV Networks you know where to look for a particular bias.

—

Beware the bullshit factories.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 2:28pm

I just assumed that c99p

@Steven D
was so small that it wouldn't be on their radar.
But I guess nothing is too small for the algos.

Submitted by Cant Stop the M... on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 4:16pm

@gjohnsit Me too. This is

@gjohnsit Me too. This is disturbing.

Total Information Suppression.

—

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Submitted by lotlizard on Tue, 08/22/2017 - 1:14am

That was my reaction too.

@Steven D
Seeing the title of the OP, my reaction was, “Is the Pope Catholic? Does a bear shit in the woods?”

Submitted by eyo on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 2:19pm

It's not censorship, it's "optimization" winkwink

SEO! Thanks, you just reminded me to send this WSWS link to my neighbor like I said I would: Google’s new search protocol is restricting access to 13 leading socialist, progressive and anti-war web sites

I made sure to bookmark them and try to visit each place regularly now, if not before. Fck google. What about YouTube, same owners. I cannot imagine here without the EB, at least it's never "de-monetized" or whatever. Here is their list of 13, and the page view droppage:

* wsws.org fell by 67 percent
* alternet.org fell by 63 percent
* globalresearch.ca fell by 62 percent
* consortiumnews.com fell by 47 percent
* socialistworker.org fell by 47 percent
* mediamatters.org fell by 42 percent
* commondreams.org fell by 37 percent
* internationalviewpoint.org fell by 36 percent
* democracynow.org fell by 36 percent
* wikileaks.org fell by 30 percent
* truth-out.org fell by 25 percent
* counterpunch.org fell by 21 percent
* theintercept.com fell by 19 percent

Page views = money, especially for donation-only sites like c99. It's why I don't rag all the time about trying to attract new members here from social media, maybe they will help with the money part as well as broaden the conversations. Don't go narrow when you're seeking more and better solutions.

good luck

Submitted by MrWebster on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 4:14pm

Looks like Black Agenda Report got hit also

@eyo My impression is that the website was getting more views with Glen Ford appearing on such outlets as Chris Hedges on RT.

https://blackagendareport.com/google-censors-the-real-left

Our audience at Black Agenda Report is somewhat smaller, our bank balance is lighter than these 13 sites and we’ve yet to take our own deep dive into the data. You actually have to hire a firm to do that stuff, which is why you really should donate to Black Agenda Report using the button elsewhere on this page. Preliminary indications are that we took roughly a 10% hit to overall traffic in April and May, a significant part of which may have been from the same cause.

Submitted by Linda Wood on Tue, 08/22/2017 - 11:55am

Thank you for this list.

@eyo

I will go to them more than I already do and as often as possible.

Submitted by detroitmechworks on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 2:26pm

Yep, and it isn't even just the autofill this time.

The net's gonna go away.

Ironically, first they've come for the Nazis.

—

I do not pretend I know what I do not know.

Submitted by gjohnsit on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 2:31pm

Autofill

@detroitmechworks
I noticed that a few weeks ago.
I used to do searches for "Democratic Party Progressives"
It used to be that "Democratic Party P..." was enough and "progressives" would autofill.

Not anymore. Now I have to type in every letter.

Submitted by Mark from Queens on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 3:14pm

Same with Twitter.

@gjohnsit
Have had to type in the full words for BlackLivesMatter, for just one example.

One big intelligence, data-minining gathering apparatus to control and diminish any potential social unrest. But it's only one tool, albeit one that can help thing move quicker.

Can still, and should focus on, building local coalitions with bonds to bigger ones. Meeting in parks, halls, pubs, street corners, cafes, etc. That's when the revolution will start.

—

"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"

- Kurt Vonnegut

Submitted by Meteor Man on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 2:36pm

That Part There

Notice the first result is relevant, and then a bunch of unrelated garbage (that continue for several pages).

I run in to that on a lot of searches on Google. I think it's a tell that sites are being omitted.

—

"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Submitted by jim p on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 3:06pm

What do I think?

My "Heil Google" T-shirt idea might just work out a money-maker.

Saw somewhere where they lay out their program for deciding what's low-rank worthy and they are explicit that those sites which counter agreed upon politics and science go to the bottom of their results. Also a Google top guy on Charlie Rose talking about they want to give us the one true thing. As if they'd know. Will try to find the link, but don't think Google will help.

—

Orwell: Where's the omelette?

Submitted by jim p on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 3:15pm

Here

@jim p https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XeIIpLqsOe4

—

Orwell: Where's the omelette?

Submitted by MrWebster on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 4:02pm

I believe they weight the results against left based sites.

There have been times when the results I have gotten back seem strange, and off point by including links which don't even contain the words I put in my search. When Trump got out of TPP the democratic party establishment consensus was that it was bad for the US and good for Russia and how China would be the big winner. Suddenly the McResistance was for the treaty. It became near impossible to find any anti-TPP literature beyond a few general articles in some mainstream outlets. In my searches I left out the words China and Russia and got page after page of links to basically the same type of article over and over again on how Trump was wrong and how Russia and China were the big winners. It was damn near impossible to find any detailed anti-TPP analysis which would have been in alternate outlets like union site, progressive economic sites, etc.

Submitted by Not Henry Kissinger on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 4:57pm

Stop searching just News.

I did a McResistance search on Google All and C99 came up 5th with your post from May 17.

Edit: Also, a mcresistance image search came up with C99 images ranked 3, 14, 19, & 23.

—

The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

Submitted by mimi on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 4:57pm

In a way any comment is censored

and people, who do comment, no matter if it's here or at TOP or on facebook or twitter, know that. Imo, the drop in page views is a sign that the surveillance terror of the IT technology companies and their algorithms, which are incomprehensible to and outside the 99 percent of little people's power to influence politically, has gotten into people's conscience and they are scared.

It's for a reason some people just don't talk anymore online. We all know it doesn't help anymore. We even know that us, putting boots on the ground to demonstrate somewhere, doesn't help anymore. We know that, if push comes to shove, the demonstrators will be killed by the police and security apparatus follows you up for years to come.

You have to read websites directly. Would be good, if people suggest which websites one should should go to directly, including foreign websites. I so often regret to not be able to translate what I read.

The manipulation of material that you find through google searches is imo nothing else but a modern, 21 first century form of "book burning", you had at the Universities in Germany during the Third Reich. It just looks so much more harmless, it's even not recognized. It's the seduction to the cool coder's "smartness" that makes it so dangerous. We are part of the problem. Our dependencies to have to use their platforms (facebook, twitter, google etc) is the problem. It's them who enforce and impose the usage of those platforms to express our opinions. And they are winning.

So, sometimes it's a picture that is what is needed.

The true face of Donald Trump. Is it? Yes or No. How about Bannon? Same face? You know what you think. We just don't share it anymore, because we are vulnerable and scared. And any form of uncontrolled emotional reactions to that kind of threatening scare tactics that our usage of the technology represents, leads in the end to self-destruction and in worst case szenarios violent desires of revenge, which then is used again to oppress your thoughts.

Nothing is more vulnerable than our own mind and people lose their minds en masse.

(Do you realize that the image to this former textual smiley has never been shown? It's for a reason, which also in a way demonstrate my point).

Sigh. Just saying ... still...how much longer?

Peace would be nice.

Submitted by travelerxxx on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 6:05pm

Hmmm... mamba?

@mimi

I have no idea what the deal is with the "mamba" textual graphic (smiley) you mentioned. Being ignorant of it, I attempted to highlight it with the cursor of my laptop and copy the text for a search. Guess what? Not only will the word "mamba" not copy in your post, I can't even "select" it. Is this some forbidden word or something?

and people, who do comment, no matter if it's here or at TOP or on facebook or twitter, know that. Imo, the drop in page views is a sign that the surveillance terror of the IT technology companies and their algorithms, which are incomprehensible to and outside the 99 percent of little people's power to influence politically, has gotten into people's conscience and they are scared. It's for a reason some people just don't talk anymore online. We all know it doesn't help anymore. We even know that us, putting boots on the ground to demonstrate somewhere, doesn't help anymore. We know that, if push comes to shove, the demonstrators will be killed by the police and security apparatus follows you up for years to come. You have to read websites directly. Would be good, if people suggest which websites one should should go to directly, including foreign websites. I so often regret to not be able to translate what I read. The manipulation of material that you find through google searches is imo nothing else but a modern, 21 first century form of "book burning", you had at the Universities in Germany during the Third Reich. It just looks so much more harmless, it's even not recognized. It's the seduction to the cool coder's "smartness" that makes it so dangerous. We are part of the problem. Our dependencies to have to use their platforms (facebook, twitter, google etc) is the problem. It's them who enforce and impose the usage of those platforms to express our opinions. And they are winning. So, sometimes it's a picture that is what is needed. The true face of Donald Trump. Is it? Yes or No. How about Bannon? Same face? You know what you think. We just don't share it anymore, because we are vulnerable and scared. And any form of uncontrolled emotional reactions to that kind of threatening scare tactics that our usage of the technology represents, leads in the end to self-destruction and in worst case szenarios violent desires of revenge, which then is used again to oppress your thoughts. Nothing is more vulnerable than our own mind and people lose their minds en masse. (Do you realize that the image to this former textual smiley has never been shown? It's for a reason, which also in a way demonstrate my point). Sigh. Just saying ... still...how much longer? Peace would be nice.

Submitted by mimi on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 6:16pm

no comment ...

@travelerxxx
it's not important at all. I think JtC might get what I meant and that is enough. Sorry for having put it in my comment.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 08/22/2017 - 12:12am

Great comment!

@mimi
You are right about people self censoring themselves in comments on websites. This has been happening with many people after they found out that the NSA and other intelligence agencies were spying on them.
You are also right about the cops coming down on peaceful protests done by people who consider themselves to progressives. What happened to OWS, BLM and the DAPL protesters by the police is something that we used to see in foreign countries, not here. There have been protests in the past where police would treat people this way, but now people are expecting the police to become violent. It also shows what TPTB will and will not accept. This was proven when OWS was brutally broken up all over this country at the same time. Those people were protesting against the banks and the CEOs and they were disrupting their business. Can't have that.
This was the same reason why the DAPL protests were also brutally broken up. They were interfering with the pipeline being built and it was costing them money.

But the protests done by people on the right are treated another way.
Both Bundy protests were not met with violence even when the authorities' live were being threatened.
The Bundy's next protests that were at the wildlife refuge were allowed to go on for over a month, even though the members were threatening the people in the town. And people noticed that.
Clive Bundy was allowed to come and go from his home without being arrested on charges of threatening violence against the authorities. Plus he still owed $1 million for not paying his grazing fees.
This again happened during the c'ville protests. The Nazis were allowed to get involved with the counter protesters while they were armed. Anyone think that if this group was BLM members that the police would have ignored them? Hell no!

and people, who do comment, no matter if it's here or at TOP or on facebook or twitter, know that. Imo, the drop in page views is a sign that the surveillance terror of the IT technology companies and their algorithms, which are incomprehensible to and outside the 99 percent of little people's power to influence politically, has gotten into people's conscience and they are scared. It's for a reason some people just don't talk anymore online. We all know it doesn't help anymore. We even know that us, putting boots on the ground to demonstrate somewhere, doesn't help anymore. We know that, if push comes to shove, the demonstrators will be killed by the police and security apparatus follows you up for years to come. You have to read websites directly. Would be good, if people suggest which websites one should should go to directly, including foreign websites. I so often regret to not be able to translate what I read. The manipulation of material that you find through google searches is imo nothing else but a modern, 21 first century form of "book burning", you had at the Universities in Germany during the Third Reich. It just looks so much more harmless, it's even not recognized. It's the seduction to the cool coder's "smartness" that makes it so dangerous. We are part of the problem. Our dependencies to have to use their platforms (facebook, twitter, google etc) is the problem. It's them who enforce and impose the usage of those platforms to express our opinions. And they are winning. So, sometimes it's a picture that is what is needed. The true face of Donald Trump. Is it? Yes or No. How about Bannon? Same face? You know what you think. We just don't share it anymore, because we are vulnerable and scared. And any form of uncontrolled emotional reactions to that kind of threatening scare tactics that our usage of the technology represents, leads in the end to self-destruction and in worst case szenarios violent desires of revenge, which then is used again to oppress your thoughts. Nothing is more vulnerable than our own mind and people lose their minds en masse. (Do you realize that the image to this former textual smiley has never been shown? It's for a reason, which also in a way demonstrate my point). Sigh. Just saying ... still...how much longer? Peace would be nice.

—

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Submitted by mimi on Tue, 08/22/2017 - 3:39am

thx, snoopydawg, as you might know, I am not

@snoopydawg
as much into the details with right-wing-supremacist-neo-nazis in the US. I just try to remember and try to find material that is comparable to demonstrations of the neo-nazis or other right-wing groups and their almost certain counter-protestors from the left in Germany and how the police handled those demos.

...but now people are expecting the police to become violent...

That's the essence. Police forces can keep right-wing protestors and left-wing counter protestors apart without being armed, if they are in huge numbers to keep them apart from attacking each other. But as they have weapons and the police has their hands on the trigger any time, the situation is way worse as I remember them having been.

It's all so confusing and for the time being I am not capable of doing some research on it. May be one day...

Submitted by dkmich on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 5:04pm

Good catch Gjohnsit.

I am going to move out of google. I am into it with both feet. FB is another. Sane Progressive's share button won't work on FB. She said she is getting ready to bail on YouTube too.

—

"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon

Submitted by Cant Stop the M... on Tue, 08/22/2017 - 7:07am

@dkmich I get why she wants to

@dkmich I get why she wants to bail on YouTube, but is she also bailing on FB?

—

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Submitted by Ellen North on Tue, 08/22/2017 - 1:13pm

@dkmich

@dkmich

Where is she going? We should have begun working on a YouTube alternative the moment censoring began, transferring stuff over immediately, so perhaps this is a good thing, if everyone advertises where they move to while still on YouTube so that they can be found.

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by Meteor Man on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 5:21pm

My Network Is Being Monitored

I have "Lookout" for security and I got my first ever alert that "Your Network may be monitored".

—

"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Submitted by Meteor Man on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 6:19pm

Google Censors All Searches

@Meteor Man @Meteor Man

Yesterday I did a Google search for "South American left wing leaders" and got a pretty weak selection of links.

I just did the same search on DuckDuckGo and got a whole host of excellent links. An astounding difference in the quality of results and for a real petty purpose.

Of course as they refine the algorithm the scrubbing will not be so apparent. Very disturbing.

—

"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn

Submitted by Ellen North on Tue, 08/22/2017 - 1:15pm

@Meteor Man

@Meteor Man

Personally I assume that everything I do is being monitored, since it is - or do you mean manned and intensively monitored, rather than recorded and possibly checked periodically?

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by Bollox Ref on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 6:35pm

I used Google once over the last year when a tablet

acted up, if I didn't.

Been using DuckDuckGo for several years.

There is no 'official' search engine. Remember when Yahoo was 'Oligarch of the Internet'?

AOL!!?? Good times.

I wish people could/would remember, that as there were various encyclopedias, there are various search engines.

(Edited)

—

Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.

Submitted by native on Tue, 08/22/2017 - 1:02pm

Being an intrinsically lazy sort,

@Bollox Ref
I've been using Google exclusively. No more. This is unconscionable, what they've been doing. Bye bye Google. DuckDuckGo now installed.

—

native

Submitted by WaterLily on Tue, 08/22/2017 - 3:19pm

Same here!

@native Never even knew of DuckDuckGo before now. As of this writing, it is now my default FF search engine.

Giving up my Gmail address will be more difficult; I've had it for many, many years. At least I have not opted into any of Google's other "useful tools," including Drive or Hangouts.

Submitted by SancheLlewellyn on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 7:38pm

This one I would not notice . . .

because I always use Duckduckgo. So that supports your case.

(What is the past tense of Duckduckgo? Duckduckwent?)

Submitted by lotlizard on Tue, 08/22/2017 - 1:19am

Duct-duct-gone? n/t

@SancheLlewellyn

Submitted by native on Tue, 08/22/2017 - 1:09pm

"Ducked" might work...

@SancheLlewellyn

—

native

Submitted by FuturePassed on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 11:06pm

I think

everyone in all the organizations affected should switch to DuckDuckGo or Startpage.

Off topic: The only reason I ever use Google now is when I need the time limit in Google advanced. (I want to know the score of a game played in the last 24 hours or a column written in the last week.) Does anyone know how I can get such results from DuckDuckGo?

Submitted by Cant Stop the M... on Tue, 08/22/2017 - 7:10am

@FuturePassed Maybe, or maybe the

@FuturePassed Maybe, or maybe the correct response is "Of course," but the average bear looking things up on the Web might not even have the idea that they can use another search engine. People use "Google" as a term the same way they use "Kleenex;" people think of that as THE search engine.

—

"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

Submitted by FuturePassed on Tue, 08/22/2017 - 11:35pm

I agree.

@Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal
But if someone could provide me with a way to constrain DuckDuckGo within a time range I would never need to use Google at all.

Submitted by eyo on Wed, 08/23/2017 - 6:45am

"constrain DuckDuckGo within a time range"

@FuturePassed thanks I never tried that, or even noticed until you asked. I search from here:

https://start.duckduckgo.com/?&kp=-2

It is my bookmark that has SafeSearch OFF by default. From there, any search returns a page with three options at the top: All Regions, SafeSearch:Off, Any Time. Any Time has options for Past Day, Past Week, Past Month for further refinement? I never use that feature, never even looked for the option. Thanks.

Submitted by FuturePassed on Wed, 08/23/2017 - 10:41am

Thank you. n/t

@eyo

Submitted by snoopydawg on Mon, 08/21/2017 - 11:11pm

I searched for the evening blues

Google gave me a bunch of worthless sites. Then I used DuckDuckGo and the first two were links to this site and the 4th one was to daily kos written in 2015 by joe.
Yep. Google is censoring. I changed my search engine to DuckDuckGo.

Good question. How can we lodge a complaint or who do we lodge it with? I guess that we can inform as many people as we can and try to get people to stop using Google.

—

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Submitted by native on Tue, 08/22/2017 - 1:18pm

To hell with trying to change Google.

@snoopydawg
Better to just drop them. There's no good reason for a single engine to enjoy such a monopoly.

—

native

Submitted by Ellen North on Tue, 08/22/2017 - 1:25pm

@native

@native

Lol, them and the Two-Faced Corporate Party... writing as this appropriately comes up on the mix:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQquGpxR9gg&list=RDdQquGpxR9gg#t=148

Muse - Emergency

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by snoopydawg on Tue, 08/22/2017 - 6:59pm

The problem with that is other people aren't aware of what

@native @native
Google is doing. This was why gjohnsit asked if there was a way we could launch a protest to.

—

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

Submitted by Dhyerwolf on Tue, 08/22/2017 - 1:20am

I use Ecosia

Which basically plants trees (or says it does) with a little of the profit gained from searches. It luckily came up with basically the same items as DuckDuckGo. Not sure it's as good on privacy, but they have planted 12 million trees so far.

Submitted by Ellen North on Tue, 08/22/2017 - 1:22pm

@Dhyerwolf

@Dhyerwolf

Apparently a number of search engines use the Google base, although I cannot recall which ones don't. I'm afraid that DuckDuckGo, which I use, might... hate to have to switch, if so, but my computer's having some serious issues, beyond the sucky connection here, so dunno if it's worthwhile checking, as I'll never be able to afford another computer.

—

Psychopathy is not a political position, whether labeled 'conservatism', 'centrism' or 'left'.

A tin labeled 'coffee' may be a can of worms or pathology identified by a lack of empathy/willingness to harm others to achieve personal desires.

Submitted by lotlizard on Tue, 08/22/2017 - 1:24am

But, but, but the Silicon Valley rich kids

are progressive, and donate to Democrats and the SPLC and stuff, and are gonna save us from racism and sexism and TOOTRIO (= The Obama of the Right, in Orange) !!

Really!

Hahaha — no.

https://www.thecut.com/2017/08/ellen-pao-silicon-valley-sexism-reset-exc...

Submitted by dkmich on Tue, 08/22/2017 - 12:15pm

@gjohnsit

Thought you might like to know this is off our chart on Facebook.

—

"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon