by Glen Wallace
I am conducting an experiment to help determine if Google is censoring search results based on ideologies. What I suspect is that Google is deliberately either blocking certain authors or written works that present a system of beliefs or ideology or paradigm that is contrary or critical of the modern system of market capitalism that the Google corporation absolutely depends on for its very existence. Also, keep in mind that Google is a private for-profit business that is just allowing us members of the public use their website because the Google corporation believes we will help them make money. I think we often make the assumption that Google is some sort of public utility or service like a public library whose existence is to serve the public in an unbiased manner so that we can freely pursue our intellectual growth in whatever direction we believe is right. But that would be a false assumption. Google is under no obligation to be unbiased and impartial. Their website is their space and I am not aware of any criminal or civil laws that would prevent them from modifying search results in a manner that would steer the users towards an ideology that is supportive of the form of capitalism that has been so fruitful for them and away from a form of communism or socialism that, if adopted by the general public, would be detrimental to Google's bottom line.
I think some analogies can be made between Google and an indoor shopping mall where even though it may feel like public space while walking down the halls, it is not public but rather private property we are on when in a mall. And when on private property like a mall we do not have the protected right to assemble and freedom of speech. If mall ownership does not like what we are saying or protesting while in a mall they can lawfully throw us out at any moment. Likewise if Google does not like what someone has written, they, as far as I know, can lawfully remove or block the piece from showing up in any of their search results. I think that people think of Google as being like a pubic library's online catalog and searchable databases. But that is just not the case. A public library belongs to the people and it has all sorts of oversight and accountability to insure that it is acting in the general public's interest by acting in an impartial matter towards the library patrons searches. But, we, the general public do not have access to Google's search result algorithms nor do they have any of the public oversight the same way a public library does. Instead, Google keeps those algorithms a tightly held secret so that we have no idea how our search results may be being steered in some direction.
I suspect that I am one of those authors that Google is engaging in at least some degree of censorship. To test my theory I am going to include some made-up nonsense words that as of my last search just before typing this piece, produced no returns from a google search, into both the text, title and labels or tags of this and other of my essays on my blog and on scribd.com. Later, I will search in Google for these nonsense words again. And if 'no matches' continue to occur, I will see that as confirmation of the sorts of censorship that I suspect from Google. Here are a list of four such words:
aberabledoople
afoblezoodeedolup
cruxlveracitude
duleefelangerhanz
I have already done some informal tests of this nature and came up with more or less confirmations of my hypothesis. But this so far is the most extensive and thorough examination and test of the subject of alleged Google censorship. I will wait in eager anticipation of the results. But even if confirmation is achieved, what recourse do I have? Well I can spread the word of what is going on so that others may be made of aware of this concerning trend. I don't think this is any small matter as software and media companies in 'the cloud' become more central and influential in their role as the medium for the exchange of ideas among the citizens around the world.
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