[ April 26, 2024 ]
They did more than consider; I can say with absolute certainty that they did just that — to me and many of my colleagues. They disappeared us from their search results.
Related: Google CEO to testify before Congress after criticism over anti-conservative bias
LEAKED DOCUMENTS: Google Employees Considered Censoring Conservative Media After 2016 Election
By Ashe Schow, Daily Wire, November 30, 2018:
Story continues below advertisement
It’s no secret that Big Tech swings to the Left and that many in the industry were devastated that Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election. But at Google, some engineers debated whether the company should suppress conservative news websites — The Daily Caller and Breitbart were specifically mentioned — to keep President Donald Trump from winning in 2020, according to internal documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF).
“This was an election of false equivalencies, and Google, sadly, had a hand in it,” engineer Scott Byer wrote on Nov. 9, 2016, according to the documents.
“How many times did you see the Election now card with items from opinion blogs (Breitbart, Daily Caller) elevated next to legitimate news organizations? That’s something that can and should be fixed,” he also wrote.
Further, Byer suggested Google had “a responsibility to expose the quality and truthfulness of sources – because not doing so hides real information under loud noises,” and suggested “teaching critical thinking” before writing that the company makes sure “we reverse things in four years – demographics will be on our side.”
Other employees were not so keen to censor, believing the move could backfire and lead to “conspiracy theories,” according to the documents.
“Thinking that Breitbart, Drudge, etc. are not ‘legitimate news sources’ is contrary to the beliefs of a major portion of our user base is partially what got us to this mess. MSNBC is not more legit than Drudge just because Rachel Maddow may be more educated / less deplorable / closer to our views, than, say Sean Hannity,” Google engineer Uri Dekel, a Clinton supporter, wrote in response to Byer.
“I follow a lot of right wing folks on social networks you could tell something was brewing. We laughed off Drudge’s Instant Polls and all that stuff, but in the end, people go to those sources because they believe that the media doesn’t do it’s [sic] job. I’m a Hillary supporter and let’s admit it, the media avoided dealing with the hard questions and issues, which didn’t pay off. By ranking ‘legitimacy’ you’ll just introduce more conspiracy theories,” he added.
Byer pushed back, according to the DCNF, writing that “Too many times, Breitbart is just echoing a demonstrably made up story.” He added that MSNBC was guilty of this, too, and insisted he didn’t “want a political judgement.”
“The desire is to break the myth feedback loop, the false equivalency, instead of the current amplification of it,” he wrote.
Mike Brauwerman, another Google engineer, suggested giving users a fuller picture of a story.
“What I believe we can do, technically, that avoids the accusations of conspiracy or bias from people who ultimately have a right and obligation to decide what they want to believe, is to get better at displaying the ‘ripples’ and copy-pasta, to trace information to its source, to link to critiques of those sources, and let people decide what sources they believe,” Brauwerman suggested.
“Give people a comprehensive but effectively summarized view of the information, not context-free rage-inducing sound-bytes,” he wrote.
The leaks of these documents is the latest hit to the corporation. In October, a video of a Google presentation titled “The Good Censor” leaked to Breitbart News and revealed the tech company believed free speech had “gone awry.”
In January 2018, Google was caught incorrectly fact-checking conservative news websites while leaving left-leaning outlets untouched. The company quickly ended its “fact-checking” process.
The Truth Must be Told
Your contribution supports independent journalism
Please take a moment to consider this. Now, more than ever, people are reading Geller Report for news they won't get anywhere else. But advertising revenues have all but disappeared. Google Adsense is the online advertising monopoly and they have banned us. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have blocked and shadow-banned our accounts. But we won't put up a paywall. Because never has the free world needed independent journalism more.
Everyone who reads our reporting knows the Geller Report covers the news the media won't. We cannot do our ground-breaking report without your support. We must continue to report on the global jihad and the left's war on freedom. Our readers’ contributions make that possible.
Geller Report's independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our work is critical in the fight for freedom and because it is your fight, too.
Please contribute here.
or
Make a monthly commitment to support The Geller Report – choose the option that suits you best.
Quick note: We cannot do this without your support. Fact. Our work is made possible by you and only you. We receive no grants, government handouts, or major funding.Tech giants are shutting us down. You know this. Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Adsense, Pinterest permanently banned us. Facebook, Google search et al have shadow-banned, suspended and deleted us from your news feeds. They are disappearing us. But we are here.
Subscribe to Geller Report newsletter here— it’s free and it’s essential NOW when informed decision making and opinion is essential to America's survival. Share our posts on your social channels and with your email contacts. Fight the great fight.
Follow Pamela Geller on Gettr. I am there. click here.
Follow Pamela Geller on Trump's social media platform, Truth Social. It's open and free.
Remember, YOU make the work possible. If you can, please contribute to Geller Report.
Join The Conversation. Leave a Comment.
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spammy or unhelpful, click the - symbol under the comment to let us know. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.
If you would like to join the conversation, but don't have an account, you can sign up for one right here.
If you are having problems leaving a comment, it's likely because you are using an ad blocker, something that break ads, of course, but also breaks the comments section of our site. If you are using an ad blocker, and would like to share your thoughts, please disable your ad blocker. We look forward to seeing your comments below.
53 Comments
5 years ago
Pamela Geller
– has been ‘sandboxed’ by Google
– for at least 10 years
– searches related to her name and websites
– are limited, redirected, or just blocked
– ‘DemocracyRules’ is also sandboxed
– googling “DemocracyRules” mostly produces irrelevant material
– even though the quotation marks are supposed to be very specific
– googling:
– “DemocracyRules” – Democracy -Rules
– produces more specific hits
– but who would think of that?
5 years ago
Reply to
DemocracyRules
I tried “DemocracyRules” on Bing, last result on page one … democracyrules.org. On gurgle, it didn’t hit until page three.
On Bing, using “DemocracyRules” – Democracy -Rules, “democracyrules.org was the first two listings. Here’s the kicker … for number three (first page):
“Theocracy and Democracy – Al-Islam.org
https://www.al-islam.org/al-tawhid/vol1-n1/theocracy-and-democracy…
Theocracy and Democracy. The Meaning of Theocracy. The concept of theocracy or the sovereignty of God, admittedly, would sound strange and remote in a society as today’s. Centuries and ages have passed without such ideas and concepts making any impression on the minds of those who have ruled and administered human societies or there being any …”
5 years ago
Reply to
Achmed Mohandjob
Yes
– they will do anything
– to make it hard
– to obscure conservative commentary
– and notice that they all obscure the searches
– in different ways
5 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
yes
– they are especially wary
– of the formation of a collective consciousness
– that understands that socialism is the enemy
5 years ago
Reply to
DemocracyRules
And the right hates government regulations, so they allow what the left is doing because of it! Google, Facebook and Twitter, should ALL be regulated, since ALL of them are public companies that sell advertising! ALL should be regulated regarding their censoring.
5 years ago
Reply to
Dorrie Gillingham
Yes
– we do hate regulations
– and because of that
– it may be better to just break them up
– because we also hate monopolies
– and if there were many smaller tech companies
– some of them would cater to conservatives
5 years ago
Reply to
Dorrie Gillingham
Breakups are done once, with few ongoing regulations
– e.g., gov’t just says Google is now divided into 5 parts
– search, video, cloud, news, and advertising
– each shall be a separate company, with no linkages
– then market competition takes its course as the Google babies go their own ways
– with very little new regulations
5 years ago
Reply to
DemocracyRules
Ok, but how does government do that legally to a private company?
5 years ago
Reply to
Dorrie Gillingham
Antitrust legislation
– is already in place
– it was most famously used against ATT
– when they came to over-dominate the phone industry
– they were broken up into a bunch of ‘Baby Bells’
– aka, smaller, local Bell Phone companies
5 years ago
Reply to
Dorrie Gillingham
Oh yes
– the goal of antitrust legislation
– is to reduce market domination to roughly 15%
– for any one company
– in any one domain of business
– so ATT survived OK
– but they ceased to monopolize
– [or nearly monopolize]
– the sectors they over-dominated
– we would do the same with Big Tech
– Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc
– would still be around
– but they would not dominate and control
– such huge parts of the internet market
5 years ago
Reply to
Dorrie Gillingham
Anti-Trust Laws
Seditious Conspiracy is TREASON
If the USA had a functioning Congress, DOJ and FCC those options would be possible.
5 years ago
Reply to
DemocracyRules
I don’t hate monopolies through the free market, but Google, Faeebook, and twitter are practically enemy propagandists. As appendages of the Democrats, they hate America and Americans won’t vote for the Democrats. It is important to listen to the chant of the Democrat activists: “No bodfers! No Walls! NO USA AT ALL”! Such ab enemy element must be dealt with before us common folk are killed on a daily basis while the Google employees; etc., live safely in their gated communities.
5 years ago
Reply to
Underzog
Yes
– monopolies damage
– the democratic free-enterprise republic
– because they concentrate
– too much economic power
– in one set of hands
– and that damages free-enterprise
– and monopolies who use their influence
– to obliterate the Constitution
– are double-jeopardy
5 years ago
Reply to
Dorrie Gillingham
I am all for that since they all abuse the privilege of doing business here and
making tons of money. They abuse every users trust and should perhaps be shut down.
There are a few very good search engines out there. I just switched myself.
Not using google ever again.
5 years ago
Reply to
Dorrie Gillingham
No ‘sandboxed’
– i.e., the Google people identify specific search terms
– like ‘Pamela Geller’
– and then they write code to specially target ‘Geller’ searches
– ‘sandbox’ refers to writing code to isolate or limit the connectivity
– of a certain part of an app
5 years ago
Prosecute google for wire fraud, a federal crime since 1872, penalties up to 20 years in prison…
5 years ago
Google and others of the Leftist Totalitarian movement are traitors to this Constitutional Republic but go unscathed. There is not one reason why this gaggle of aspirant despots under the banner of treason are not indicted for treason and authorizing unconstitutional perfidy within its its ranks. Frankly, I, for one, believe they, Google, has done its utmost to censor Conservatism, pro-Israel/Jew, and numerous others not of a pro-Progressive bent. It is symptomatic of the twisted, undemocratic conspiring within Google, Facebook, and others endeavoring to destroy this Republic and its Constitution.
5 years ago
Reply to
Ziggy46
I agree with you.
I also believe they have paid off our representatives to do nothing.
5 years ago
The left pretends to be “fair and balanced”, but in reality, it is anything but. They tolerate only opinions locked in line with THEIR beliefs, not anyone else’s.
5 years ago
Reply to
R. Arandas
The left, which is at least 90% Left Wing-nut Regressives, gave up even pretending to be “fair and balanced” a very long time ago.
5 years ago
Reply to
R. Arandas
It’s another way of brainwashing the masses if you only heir THEIR view.
If that is all you hear, you begin to think like them.
5 years ago
Try DOGPILE
http://www.dogpile.com
5 years ago
Reply to
Millionmileman
I just tried it, on the “DemocracyRules” search. Same results as gurgle.
5 years ago
Censoring ….. the preferred tool for thugs because they can’t win without force.
5 years ago
Anyone here still use Google as their primary search engine? Turn that crap off, there are other search engines…
5 years ago
Reply to
MAS
I have been using DuckDuckGo for the past year and find it to be an EXCELLENT search engine! And it has ZERO trackers!
5 years ago
Google’s big story yesterday was from al jazz-sh*t hole, naming the conservative Republican Senators who voted in support of Trump’s Yemen policy, which is to say, against Iran.
The story was typical rude arrogant shameless muslim immigrant scum chaos, presuming to cast judgement on the ethics and morality of the remaining American members of Congress.
Google, like every newspaper, news network, university hierarchy and hi-tech/social media behemoth is infested with immigrants and miscreants of all kinds who have nothing but ill will toward us and our country.
5 years ago
Reply to
Chris Wolf
While they are at it, could Google question why the SEX FUND our tax dollars are paying for isn’t being exposed? I’d like to see names, dates and amounts paid out for rape and harassment to our shameless representatives. Who can forget how they behaved at the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing with the fake groping charges. You’d think they were all made eunuchs prior to puberty.
5 years ago
Reply to
felix1999
All that BLATANT lying in the Kavanaugh hearings and NO ONE is being charged with perjury. We dont even qualify to be labelled e Banana Republic
5 years ago
Reply to
santashandler
True!
Banana Republics, at the very least, arrest their seditious dissidents.
5 years ago
Reply to
Chris Wolf
Chris,
So well said and so, so true. Silicon Valley are full of muslims that started or work high up in large
internet companies. They think nothing of abusing the freedom and privileges we have here.
Tyranny runs in their blood.
5 years ago
If this can “leak” out, WHY aren’t we using this and stopping it?
I know Trump has his hands full but what about Session’s replacement?
How about the Senate opening an investigation on it?
5 years ago
SPOILT brats! How do these lucky companies ever got so rich and powerFOOL begin to STAB those that allowed their luck to grow and prosper??
All over the world nuth’n but SPOILT brats. From illegal immigrants, to donkey ucking Mouslems, to the MSM, to Demoncraps, to companies like Googlue, Fakebook, Twittard, etc. All of them the new ukfing World Odor.
5 years ago
Reply to
Alleged-Comment
The CIA and Google are one.
Ex-CIA Agent States Google is “In Bed With” the CIA
kidmercury on Sat, 2006-10-28 03:52. Business Issues
http://www.threadwatch.org/node/9612
Operation Mockingbird
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the alleged CIA program. For an overview of CIA influence on media, see CIA influence on public opinion.
Operation Mockingbird was an alleged large-scale program of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that began in the early 1950s and attempted to manipulate news media for propaganda purposes. It funded student and cultural organizations and magazines as front organizations.
5 years ago
Those who are responsible for this censorship need to be made accountable by whatever means are available. suggest beginning with a lawsuit on the grounds these platforms are public utilities and need to be regulated. I know this upsets the libertarians but it is well established that monopolies need to be regulated, and I assure you these tech companies are monopolies in every sense of the word.
5 years ago
What’s truly sad about tech censorship is that google, twitter, Facebook, etc really think people are truly dumb. They censor in order to stop us stupid people from hearing “wrong think” whereas in reality, people can tell the difference between truth and lies a lot better than they think. They have to censor because they have allied themselves with lies. All they do is cover up. If their perspective was the “right” one, everyone would see its merit. You don’t have to beat people up to do the right thing. You do however have to ram illogical thought down people’s throats. So truthfully, they’ve taken to totalitarian tactics because they don’t have that much confidence in their message.
5 years ago
While it’s difficult…. every day take 1 step to remove google from your life.
First thing u can do is stop using Google search and get new email addresses.
5 years ago
What can be done? Google, Facebook, Microsoft etc. are all monopolies and anti Trump. I say that trump should break them up like they did to Shell Oil co. and AT&T.
5 years ago
“Plotted”?!
Commie google has succeeded!
They are the technocratic propaganda central for the Proggers.
5 years ago
I so wish there was another search engine equal like Goog but one who was totally fair.
Billionaire conservatives should have started such a company.
5 years ago
They are soooo brainwashed that they can’t help but spout the same lines again and again. Breitbart and Drudge are not legitimate news sites but every word out of Rachel Madcow’s mouth is the Gospel truth? Take off the glasses and return to reality, if possible. For some of them, probably most, they just cannot see it any other way.
5 years ago
“Give people a comprehensive but effectively summarized view of the information, not context-free rage-inducing sound-bytes,” he wrote.” What kind of gobbledygook is that. Do these people hold meetings and use that language within the organization. “free-ra(n)ge sound-bytes?”
5 years ago
Censoring is what tyrannical dictatorships does.
I am in the process of making sure I never use google again.
