Google And Youtube Target “Conspiracy Theories” In New Censorship Update
Google continues to make George Orwell’s book 1984 a reality by censoring free speech and free flow of information.
On July 27, 2017 Google updated their quality evaluator guidelines.
The latest update to its rating guidelines brings many changes but the biggest are focused on conspiracy theory websites and query results in the non-English language and satirical pages that don’t make it clearly known they are satire.
Months before Google updated their guidelines for raters twice once on May 11, 2017 with some smaller changes and then again on March 14th with bigger controversial changes classifying what “offensive, upsetting, inaccurate and hateful web pages,” defines.
The new guidelines are scary to think about a search giant having so much control over the free flow of information is extremely worrying.
The guidelines instruct raters to directly confront “unsubstantiated conspiracy theories” by looking for a source that debunked them The Sem Post reported.
The Post noted that the rules don’t specifically target and go after all “conspiracy theory” websites only those that present a “conspiracy theory as factual information without basis.”
However, who decides what is and what isn’t real?
Who are the companies behind this valiant effort to police Google’s search engine and who watches the watchers?
Well according to Search Engine Land, “Google contracts with over 10,000 search quality raters worldwide to evaluate its search results. Raters are given actual searches to conduct, drawn from real searches that happen on Google.”
None of the companies it contracts with were named.
Under section 7.10, Google goes on to crucify “unsubstantiated conspiracy theories.”
7.10 Examples of Lowest Quality Pages:
Lowest: Deceptive page purpose – unsubstantiated conspiracy theories.
Google added an example of “unsubstantiated conspiracy theories” choosing the most wild and crazy ones out there but also labeling “the existence of aliens,” to be low-quality content.
The example they used was the alleged existence of the Sumerian 10th planet Nibiru and the conspiracy the Vatican knows about its impending crash into Earth. But then after that, the document defined what it considers “unsubstantial conspiracy theories” which includes those challenging “well established historical facts.” But the connotation of what those historical facts would entail is not included.
“The MC on this page contains factually unsupported theories related to the Vatican’s knowledge of the planet Nibiru, the existence of aliens, and upcoming world events. Although various Vatican officials and scientists are quoted in the article, the quotations do not support the article’s claims, and in some cases do not seem to come from the person quoted. The Nibiru cataclysm and related events have also been thoroughly debunked by authoritative sources ( Reference 1 , Reference 2 ). The demonstrably inaccurate content on this page can misinform users.
“Pages that directly contradict well established historical facts (e.g., unsubstantiated conspiracy theories), unless the query clearly indicates the user is seeking an alternative viewpoint.
A nonsatirical webpage or website presents unsubstantiated conspiracy theories or hoaxes as if the information were factual,” Google wrote.
The example in the PDF continues to show that raters should be able to find credible sources that have debunked the conspiracy theory.
Meanwhile, Youtube a Google parent company is planning on crucifying anyone who doesn’t upload fuzzy cat videos and puppies, in other words, all their controversial content creators under the guise of getting rid of “extremist content.”
These organizations to police Youtube’s content include the No Hate Speech Movement, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, and the Anti-Defamation League.
But don’t worry Google won’t ban controversial conspiracy content altogether only if you’re not looking for it as the document noted “unless the query clearly indicates the user is seeking an alternative viewpoint.”
We are further witnessing the Youtube, Google and Amazon adpocalypse against the alternative media and its far from over.
Written by @an0nkn0wledge for @ActivistPost
They have certainly buggered up the traffic flow to my website!
http://www.frot.co.nz/design/
I have switched to Duck Duck go because they are not hiding all the stuff I'm searching for
https://duckduckgo.com/
sadly predictable that the real target of the censorship were going to be "conspiracy theorists", aka truthers.
ISIS (a creation of the Intelligence Services) was just the excuse to enact such orwellian censorship. It was clear since David Cameron's address at the UN a couple of years ago:
A dark day for humanity, hopefully new blockchain technologies will help bypass their censorship!
Unreal the amount of censorship, thats exactly the reason Im here. I get followers deleted on my Facebook andd Youtube accounts and thrown into Facebook prison for breathing! I hope this site really takes off so we can move away from all that Orwellian control.
So I can no longer make my judgment by myself on what is true or not >_<
I am just DISGUSTED by this...do you have any ideas on how we can combat this?
Stop using Google and use DuckDuckgo.com burn your android phones and move to decentralized platforms and social media networks like Ong.Social and Steemit.
Still waiting for Ubuntu Touch (aka UBports). Then I'm done with every point on this list.
Upvoted. Fuck google. Who's gonna make the first decentralized google-like web search?
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STOPUseful post! Upvoted and resteemed :)
The most horrifying thing here is that many people are okay with the idea that a search engine giant in that position would use more ideological guidance in content control and allocation of visibility. Even more people are expressing their willingness to see big companies taking "social responsibility", that is, using more effort on political activism, (very likely at the expense of owners and overall customer satisfaction). At least this is my perception after the #googlememo we had yesterday.
If you are interested more about this speculation about the (not so) futuristic form of corporate social responsibility, consider reading my recent post: https://steemit.com/censorship/@thomastaussi/google-punishing-anti-diversity-views-extended-corporate-social-responsibility
Thanks!
I wonder how Google handles their double speak with testimony like Citizens hearing on Disclosure and other publications presented by the well known Steven Greer.
On the other hand we could use some quality 10,000 curators!
Going to look into it.