Last April, Google announced changes to its algorithm, aiming to sideline “fake news”, conspiracy theories and other content that it claimed was not “advertiser friendly”. Publishers from the so-called “Alt-Right” immediately cried foul. 90 days later, a study conducted by André Damon of the World Socialist Web showed that the traffic rankings of the top left-leaning anti-war sites in the US were down by as much as 70%.
I can personally vouch for the veracity of these findings, having observed this trend on my own site, which I don’t consider to be either Right or Left, as much as it is anti-war and anti-corruption. Roughly 50% of visitors to ForbiddenKnowledgeTV.net arrive here through Google Search results. With the search results for my site now curtailed by Google, visits to the site (i.e., “traffic”) are down. I’ve been voicing my suspicions of this to anyone who will listen so it’s something of a relief to find solid confirmation of this disturbing trend.
As André Damon explains very clearly, “Peoples’ opinions, if they don’t line up with the interests of Google, which is one of the most politically-connected corporations on the planet, having given more in lobbying donations over the recent period than any other corporation; if they don’t line up with the interests of Google, if they don’t line up with the interests of the Government, if they don’t line up with the interests of the military and intelligence establishment, they will be censored. And the vision outlined in that document is entirely consistent with the statistics that we’ve seen.”
It is dangerous enough to democracy, to Net Neutrality and to the First Amendment when a monopolistic behemoth that’s a defacto branch of the Deep State/intelligence apparatus, like Google is suppressing bonafide search results. It’s even scarier that this leviathan should be allowed to remain in one gargantuan piece.
