Jim Jordan received $11,000 from Google in his reelection campaign

Does that make him think twice before taking action to prevent bias and censorship?

"Dystopian"

Sean Davis: "The unholy union between monopolistic tech oligarchs and corrupt media."

Tucker Carlson: "All of these people you vote for in the hope that they will protect you...all of them are AWOL."

Tucker Carlson: A lot of Americans are staying quiet right now, and, of course, that's the point of censorship: to keep people isolated and alone.

Tucker: If you are in the news business and Google tells you to do something, you do it. In all of human history, no single entity has had more control of information than Google does right now.

Tucker: Google finds it intolerable that Zero Hedge and The Federalist have unmonitored comment sections where readers can say what they want!

Glenn Greenwald:

That NBC has, and uses, the power to have sites it ideologically dislikes ideologically kicked off Google Ads is dystopian.

It's particularly chilling since NBC/MSBNC was one of the worst purveyors of deranged conspiracy theories over the last 4 years. https://

Read and watch more here.

Will a suit be filed, or will someone be bought off?

Anders Hagstrom reports in part in the Daily Caller,

President Donald Trump appeared to express support for breaking up dominant tech companies in a tweet Saturday.

Trump’s tweet comes just hours after reports that the Justice Department was drafting an antitrust lawsuit against Google. Politicians have long feared that Google and its peers like Facebook and Amazon have become too dominant in their industry.

“The Radical Left is in total command & control of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google. The Administration is working to remedy this illegal situation. Stay tuned, and send names & events,” Trump tweeted.

State attorneys general are reportedly working alongside the DOJ to draft similar lawsuits alleging that Google has violated antitrust laws. Texas AG Ken Paxton is leading the coalition of 51 AGs, according to Bloomberg.

...Reports that the DOJ is drafting a lawsuit does not necessarily mean a suit will ultimately be filed. Officials investigated Google for similar reasons in 2013 only to end the investigation.

Read more here.

Historic

Ace of Spades asks and answers: Shouldn't a historic television pageant be good for the ratings of CNN, the Orange Man Bad network?

Apparently not.

CNN posted its lowest primetime ratings in three years over the Thanksgiving holidays, while Fox News posted higher ratings than CNN and MSNBC combined.
...

It was CNN's worst primetime week in three years, and its worst week among the 25-54 demographic. Here is a video with many CNN pundits saying it was "an historic day." Ace of Spades:

apparently CNN leaned on one of the traditional media companies it is illegally colluding with, and Google -- parent of YouTube -- took down the video at CNN's demand.

SUPERCUT: Every day on CNN is “historic” when Trump’s being impeached pic.twitter.com/QbqIstrl8n

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) December 5, 2019

Go get em, Tulsi!

BREAKING: Democrat presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard is suing Google for $50,000,000+ for allegedly infringing on her free speech rights after her campaign ads were temporarily suspended following the first round of Democratic primary debates https://t.co/h6PFM8LA4m

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) July 25, 2019

Google aiding Chinese military but not ours?

Billionaire investor (and Facebook board member) Peter Thiel has called for an investigation of Google by the FBI and CIA. Lucas Nolan reports in Breitbart,

Thiel noted “three questions that should be asked” by the federal government of tech giant Google.

Number one, how many foreign intelligence agencies have infiltrated your Manhattan Project for AI?

Number two, does Google’s senior management consider itself to have been thoroughly infiltrated by Chinese intelligence?

Number three, is it because they consider themselves to be so thoroughly infiltrated that they have engaged in the seemingly treasonous decision to work with the Chinese military and not with the US military… because they are making the sort of bad, short-term rationalistic [decision] that if the technology doesn’t go out the front door, it gets stolen out the backdoor anyway?

Thiel added that these questions “need to be asked by the FBI, by the CIA, and I’m not sure quite how to put this, I would like them to be asked in a not excessively gentle manner.” Thiel has been a long time supporter of Artificial Intelligence, joining Elon Musk and Reid Hoffman in pledging to commit a total of $1 billion to the non-profit group OpenAI in 2015.

Google has come under fire previously for its relationship with China, particularly the development of a censored Chinese search engine codenamed Project Dragonfly. During a speech before the Hudson Institute in 2018, Vice President Mike Pence criticized what he believes is China’s theft of U.S. technology, urging Gooogle to take action on the issue. Pence said during the speech that other business leaders are hesitant to enter the Chinese market “if it means turning over their intellectual property or abetting Beijing’s oppression.”

Pence called on Google to listen to these other leaders and that “more must follow suit.” He also called on Google to end the development of its censored Chinese search engine project known as Dragonfly: “For example, Google should immediately end development of the ‘Dragonfly’ app that will strengthen Communist Party censorship and compromise the privacy of Chinese customers,” said Pence.

Read more here.

Google blocks Claremont Institute

Human Events reports,

Google has blocked a conservative think tank from advertising with the tech giant after an academic essay and debate on multiculturalism was posted on its website.

The highly respected Claremont Institute – founded in 1979 – attempted to let its audience know about its Gala Dinner honoring Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on May 11th in Los Angeles.

...The think tank also revealed that after two hours of conversations with Google officials, they were informed there was no appeal process, and that the essay entitled ‘Defend America – Defeat Multiculturalism’ needed to be removed from the internet in order to fulfill Google’s demands.

Read more here.

The Good Censor

Ace:

Muh Private Monopolistic Overlords: Google Schemed To Block Breitbart from Making Money on Ads
—Ace of Spades
Hey, maybe those guys at AEI being paid off by Google can type us up a reason we shouldn't fear an ultrarich, ultraleft Monster Tech company which has made the American Political System its next target for acquisition.

Breitbart:

But the 85-page briefing, titled "The Good Censor," admits that Google and other tech platforms now "control the majority of online conversations" and have undertaken a "shift towards censorship" in response to unwelcome political events around the world.

...The briefing argues that Google, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are caught between two incompatible positions, the "unmediated marketplace of ideas" vs. "well-ordered spaces for safety and civility."

The first approach is described as a product of the "American tradition" which "prioritizes free speech for democracy, not civility." The second is described as a product of the "European tradition," which "favors dignity over liberty and civility over freedom." The briefing claims that all tech platforms are now moving toward the European tradition.

The briefing associates Google�s new role as the guarantor of "civility" with the categories of "editor" and "publisher." This is significant, given that Google, YouTube, and other tech giants publicly claim they are not publishers but rather neutral platforms-- a categorization that grants them special legal immunities under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Elsewhere in the document, Google admits that Section 230 was designed to ensure they can remain neutral platforms for free expression.

Ace:

More excerpts from The Good Censor, more admissions that Google and other tech companies have become full-on media companies making peddling their own editorial line and should not have special immunity that other media companies do not, and a link to the document itself at the link.

Gee, I wonder why so few "conservative" sites are discussing this.

SPLC is one of Google's "Trusted Flaggers!"

In PJ Media, Tyler O'Neil reports,

On Tuesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai repeatedly denied that there is any political bias in the way he runs the company. In the same breath, however, he acknowledged that Google's YouTube considers the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a far-Left smear factory, a "trusted flagger." Conservative non-profits and a Ph.D. psychologist who monitors the influence of big tech blasted this hypocrisy.

"Google is a company that oversees 90 percent of the world's search traffic and yet lists the Southern Poverty Law Center as one of its 'trusted flaggers.' Keep in mind that this is the same SPLC that holds half of America in utter contempt," Lt. Gen. (Ret.) William Boykin, executive vice president of the Family Research Council (FRC), told PJ Media.

"If Google wants to avoid the censorship label, then partnering with the SPLC sends the opposite message," Boykin declared.

Read more here.

Comments on Google testimony

Zombie comments at Ace of Spades,

"Conservative" is now a meaningless label, applied equally to traitors and limousine socialists -- but never to actual conservatives.

Mikey NTH comments,

I mean, we all understand how Google has to make certain that conservatives are deplatformed, shadowbanned, have search results not show their work and so on. Because this is the free market in action, and if we write things that glorify our new paymaster those bad things will not befall us. So we join with Sauron - Google.

Really, it is the only choice

joe, living dangerously, commented,

Big business is "naturally conservative" the same way that Hispanic immigrants are.

It's a convenient fiction that gets told often enough that people believe it, but it hasn't been true for a long time. The top valued companies now are Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, and Samsung. One of those isn't even based in the US, and the other 4 are undeniably pro-leftist agendas.

Ace commented,

Let's say I agree that Google will become so thuggish in its censorship and INTERFERENCE WITH US ELECTIONS (just like RUSSIA!) that a competitor will eventually rise and become its equal.

What is the time scale we're talking about? 10 years? 20 years? NEVER?! (Some monopolies are too powerful and remain in place forever.)

Should we just wait for the magic of the self-correcting market for 20 or 30 years while we're censored, surveilled, and manipulated politically? After 30 years of Google stacking the deck for Democrats, what exactly would be left of America to conserve?

Read more here.

Should we enforce actual laws on the books re: monopolies?

Ace of Spades links to a Wired article. He headlines his story at AOS,

Shocker: Google Funding "Conservatives" Who Then Write Articles Defending Google, Which Are Then Cited by Google as Arguments Not to Regulate Google or Treat It as a Monopoly

...He explained that the "crush phase" of the public's attitude towards Monster Tech was over, and that people might start talking about enforcing the actual law that is on the books regarding monopolies, which is what Google undeniably is -- in case you didn't know, antitrust law does not apply only to true monopolies, where there is literally not a single competitor, but to near-monopolies, where the company has 85% or more dominance.

Google's market share of the search industry? 90%.

Read more here.

Jim Jordan asks Google's head easy-to-answer questions

A stunning video

From John Hinderaker in PowerLine:

IT’S OFFICIAL: GOOGLE IS A DEMOCRATIC PARTY FRONT
Someone leaked to Breitbart an hour-long video of an “all hands” Google meeting that was held just after the 2016 election. The video features Google’s co-founder, Sergei Brin, its CEO, Sundar Pichai, and numerous other high-ranking “Googlers” speaking in turn about the election’s tragic outcome. It is stunning.

All of the speakers express grief over Donald Trump’s election. All of the speakers assume that every Google employee is a Democrat and is stunned and horrified that Hillary Clinton–the worst and most corrupt presidential candidate in modern history–lost. There is much discussion about what Google can do to reverse the benighted world-wide tide exemplified by Brexit and Trump’s election. The insane doctrine of “white privilege” rears its head.

You really have to see it to believe it. Having suffered through the hour-long cri de cœur–OK, to be fair, there is a huge element of schadenfreude, too, and you will relish much of it–you probably will have several reactions: 1) These people may have certain valuable technical skills, but they aren’t very bright and are unusually lacking in self-awareness. 2) It is remarkable that they can achieve such an extraordinary monoculture in an organization with thousands of employees. It must require vigorous enforcement of right-think. 3) It is easy to see how these uniformly left-wing robots/people seamlessly transitioned into Resisting the duly elected Trump administration.

The question is what to do about the left-wing tech monopolies of Silicon Valley. Start conservative companies and platforms to compete with them? Break them up under the Sherman Act? Turn them into regulated public utilities, with public employee-level salaries and no stock options? Those are all possibilities. After watching the video, you no doubt will be ready to take action.

Here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRf9UxsM-NE&feature=player_embedded

Prager U.'s lawsuit against Google

Eric Lieberman writes a comprehensive article at Western Journalism about Google's censorship of Prager U. videos. Read it here.

Soros warns about Google and Facebook

Liam Clancy reports at The Daily Caller,

Billionaire investor and activist George Soros took aim at Google and Facebook Thursday during a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, calling the tech giants “near-monopoly distributors.”

Soros’ speech included a harsh critique of both companies, with the billionaire referring to the companies as a “menace” that must be stopped with “more stringent regulations,” such as treating the companies like public utilities, according to BuzzFeed.

“They claim they are merely distributing information. But the fact that they are near- monopoly distributors makes them public utilities and should subject them to more stringent regulations, aimed at preserving competition, innovation, and fair and open universal access,” Soros said.

Soros additionally noted that such powerful tech giants could eventually enter alliances with “authoritarian states,” and that the results would be disastrous.

“There could be an alliance between authoritarian states and these large, data-rich IT monopolies that would bring together nascent systems of corporate surveillance with an already developed system of state-sponsored surveillance,” the billionaire said. “This may well result in a web of totalitarian control the likes of which not even Aldous Huxley or George Orwell could have imagined.”

Stop trying to help me think!

Kudos to The Daily Caller! Eric Lieberman reports there that because of the Daily Caller's investigation into Google's faulty fact-checking on stories, Google has decided to stop doing it! The same for Facebook! I had Facebook interrupt my reading one time, telling me that their fact-checker questioned the accuracy of a story I had clicked on. Of course, that made me all that much more determined to read the story and decide for myself whether the story was credible.
Read more here.

The financial power of Google and Facebook, who are run by Leftists!

How times have changed

"It is not easy for the opponents of truth to have a battle with truth!"

James Damore gives his first interview since being fired by Google. And guess who is the interviewer? Dr. Jordan Peterson noted evolutionary psychologist who was banned from Google's YouTube for a while! Why was Damore fired? "Perpetuating gender stereotypes!" He observed that the culture at Google tries to silence any dissenting view. "I don't know how they expect to silence so many engineers and intelligent people!"

What does Damore want? "Open discussion, so the ideologues can't just have their way!"

Dr. Peterson warns him that "When someone causes trouble, the first response of the media and public is to jump on you and allege "there's something wrong with you." But Damore has no history of trouble-making. Peterson advises him to "steel yourself," stay calm and composed like you are in this interview." "You are not the kind of person who can be easily transformed into a villain!"

Peterson then goes point-by-point through the document that got Damore fired from Google.

"'approved-think' intersectionality enables victims to compete to see who truly is the most under of dogs."

At Daily Mail, Katie Hopkins weighs in on the Google vs. James Damore controversy.

The left are moralizing every issue, dismissing anyone that disagrees as immoral and harshly punishing those they see as villains to protect ‘victims’.

And 'approved-think' intersectionality enables victims to compete to see who truly is the most under of dogs. Does anyone know a good vet?


James Damore

Importantly, the solutions advocated James Damore in his paper are eminently more sensible and are in danger of getting lost in the furor.

He has concrete suggestions to:
Demoralize diversity: To stop making disagreement ‘immoral’, harshly punishing those we see as villains to protect ‘victims’.
Stop alienating conservatives: to the point conservatives need to stay in the closet to avoid open hostility
Be open about the science of human nature. Not all differences are due to discrimination.
Stop restricting programs to certain genders or race. These discriminatory practises are unfair and divisive.
Have an open and honest discussion about the costs and benefits of our diversity programs.
Stop calling for empathy on diversity issues. Being emotionally unengaged helps us better reason about the facts.
Stop making people so sensitive. Microaggression Training incorrectly and dangerously equates speech with violence and isn’t backed by evidence.

Many of our public institutions would do well to heed these solutions, from politicians to police, schools to parents. To me, this reads as a manifesto for a truly inclusive and diverse workforce where there is equitable access to opportunities for all. One grounded in facts and outcomes, not bias and feelings. It is one I would whole heartedly support.

James Damore has been sacked for these views. And for the Google CEO to cancel his family holiday to deal with the fallout suggests the problems is much bigger than just one internal memo.

Damore hit a nerve. Perhaps the real problem is that it connects with the truth, a truth this authoritarian organisation is intent on silencing.

And if Google is intent on silencing dissent from approved group-think, then we should all be alarmed.
According to the latest comscore report (February 2017) an astonishing 64% of searches were powered by google, its nearest rival - Bing - languishing at 21.4%.

The events of the weekend make me worry about bigger issues than the unjustified firing of one poor googled who dared stand against the herd.

It makes me wonder about this giant, chewing up our feed, spitting out the bits we are allowed to see, disposing of the rest like garbage down the sink.

If Google can't tolerate free speech in its own house how can we trust it with ours?

Read more here.