I have written about Google and Facebook numerous times manipulating search results etc for the benefit of politicians and the rich and it has become obvious that Google is starting to take it to the next level of abuse when I did a search for NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro a few weeks ago.
A lot is written about News Corp and other media companies pushing lies and propaganda for certain politicians and political parties but so too does Google and Facebook as well. The reality is it should be no surprise given Australia’s largest media companies are now on the payroll of Google and Facebook and have been for a few months and it is now clear that they are looking after each other which is has the effect of undermining Australian democracy and has led to illegal censorship by Google and Facebook.
When you have a corrupt government that use our money to buy votes by pork-barrelling in their own electorates it should have been obvious they would expect payback from the large media companies when they forced Google and Facebook to start paying them a few months ago. (Click here to read more) I have also written about Christian Porter’s lawyer Rebekah Giles abusing the law in collusion with Google to block articles I have written. (Click here to read more) And I also published an article in January 2021 titled “Google Australia CEO Mel Silva caught lying defending Google and admits Google censor their search results”. (Click here to read more)
In the Mel Silva article mentioned above, I also published the below video regarding the new Google and Facebook media laws which is worth watching again.
Accusing Google Australia CEO Mel Silva of lying probably hasn’t helped my cause but it’s true and doesn’t justify them reducing search traffic sent to this website. I’m not the only one to accuse Google of being corrupt and censoring their search results for politicians and others as a quick look at their Wikipedia page will show:
In testimony before a U.S. Senate antitrust panel in September 2011, Jeffrey Katz, the chief executive of NexTag, said that Google’s business interests conflict with its engineering commitment to an open-for-all Internet and that: “Google doesn’t play fair. Google rigs its results, biasing in favour of Google Shopping and against competitors like us.” Jeremy Stoppelman, the chief of Yelp, said sites like his have to cooperate with Google because it is the gateway to so many users and “Google then gives its own product preferential treatment.” In earlier testimony at the same hearing Eric Schmidt, Google’s chairman, said that Google does not “cook the books” to favour its own products and services. (Click here to read more)
And in relation to China: Google has been involved in the censorship of certain sites in specific countries and regions. Until March 2010, Google adhered to the Internet censorship policies of China, enforced by filters colloquially known as “The Great Firewall of China“. Google.cn search results were filtered to remove some information perceived to be harmful to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). (Click here to read more)
What the China issue shows is that Google has a history censoring search results on behalf of governments if it helps Google financially and I have no doubt they are doing that in Australia now at least to some degree.
Do your own search results test
You don’t have to take my word regarding Google and Facebook now undermining Australian democracy with censorship. You can do some testing yourself and come you your own conclusions. Just do a search on Google and do exactly the same search on DuckDuckGo or Bing or other search engines and see the different results as I have done below and it is blatant that Google and favouring the large media companies they have financial agreements with and in other cases Google are concealing corruption allegations against politicians that other search engines are not.
What motivated me for this article is when I did a search on Google for, John Barilaro, a few days after I had written an article about him on the 14th of June titled “Corrupt NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro turns NSW Police into a Nazi goon squad to assault, harass and jail journalists” not only was my article nowhere to be found the first page was very sanitised as if someone had cleaned it up to make him look good. So I tried, John Barillaro corrupt, and even then the search results looked fairly sanitised.
Then I tried two other search engines DuckDuckGo and Bing and search John Barilaro and the results were greatly different than Google. The DuckDuckGo search for John Barilaro came up with 3 independent websites on the first page of results accusing John Barilaro of corruption including this website and the Bing search for John Barilaro also came up with 2 independent websites accusing John Barilaro of corruption. When I search, John Barilaro corrupt, on DuckDuckGo this website came up twice in the search results as well as a number of other independent websites and when I searched Bing for John Barilaro corrupt this website again was number one and numerous other independent websites were also on the first page.
Remember when doing your own testing that it is the first page of search results that really counts as a large percentage of people don’t go past the first page of results.
So why is Google pushing independent websites down the rankings in search results in Australia? Firstly, I think it is because of the financial deal they now have with the large media companies and secondly to keep numerous politicians happy. The most feared media by governments around the world, including Australia, are independent journalists and small media companies because many of them report without fear or favour.
ACCC bias when acting in collusion with the government
One very disturbing element of the new Google and Facebook tax is that the ACCC who are meant to promote competition between businesses have set up a closed shop for large media companies to collude with Google and Facebook to undermine smaller media companies and independent journalists. A few months ago the new “Murdoch Tax” was finalised where Scott Morrison’s government forced Google and Facebook to start paying Australia’s largest media players but the small independent journalists and media businesses missed out.
You won’t see News Corp, Nine Entertainment or Seven West Media write an article like this one questioning Google or Facebook because Australia’s large media companies now rely upon Google and Facebook for income. And how impartial will the ABC and SBS be now given they will also receive money from Google and Facebook.
Google and Facebook have a huge financial incentive to keep Australian media companies happy because if they don’t the government might tighten the new media laws on Google and Facebook which could also cost them dearly on a global basis if other countries follow what is happening in Australia.
A lot is written about News Corp and other media companies pushing lies and propaganda for certain politicians and political parties but so too does Google Facebook via manipulating search results and what they allow and don’t allow on their websites.
What impact has it had on the Kangaroo Court of Australia website?
I am probably down about 10 per cent of the overall traffic that I would have otherwise had if Google had not been censoring this website as much as it has. And how much Facebook has blocked my website is unknown although I know Kerry Stokes had some articles blocked on Facebook. (Click here to read more) I will survive and continue to grow but at a slightly slower rate than I would have.
Where the real damage is done is that the difference between the Liberal/National Party coalition being in power federally or the Labor Party is only a couple of percentage points and only a couple of seats so if Google, who account for 92% of all internet searches, censor their search results only a few percentage points it can change an election and the same could be said for Facebook. Not only that, Google and Facebook are helping hide the crimes of the rich and powerful.
One of the best things you can do to help fight the censorship by Google and Facebook is to follow independent websites like this one via the free email subscription and share new articles on your social media accounts such as Twitter and Facebook etc. The battle with the likes of Facebook and Google will be a long one but it can be won and it is worth fighting for.
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