Buzz
As the world's leading search engine, Google holds such significance that it is often viewed as the gateway to the internet. However, this dominance allows Google to control what we (and its employees) can access, express, do, or share.
Before we dive deeper, it's crucial to acknowledge that Google doesn't always operate independently. At times, it is simply a pawn in the hands of a more powerful force — the government.
10. It compels websites to revise or remove their content
Google AdSense, the largest online ad network, is also one of the most heavily censored. Google pressures its partner websites to comply with its content guidelines, effectively forcing them to either modify or completely remove any content it deems unacceptable.
Website owners have no choice but to comply if they wish to stay in the AdSense network.
Google claims that it only asks website owners to remove content that isn't 'family-friendly.' However, website owners have pointed out that the definition of 'family-friendly' is entirely at Google's discretion.
Website owners only receive emails instructing them to remove ads from specific content that violates Google’s 'Terms and Conditions.' This is the extent of communication a website owner can expect from Google. Any attempts to request further clarification are met with silence.
You might recall that Mytour recently published a list of articles that Google pressured it to suppress in the exact same manner. You can explore (and read) the lists Google wanted us to remove here: Top 10 Mytour Lists Google Doesn’t Want You To See.
9. It nearly created a censored search engine for China
Google played a significant role in the Chinese search engine market until its withdrawal from the country in 2010. Google cited its inability to comply with China's censorship laws as the reason for leaving. However, it seems that Google reconsidered its decision a few years later.
In 2017, The Intercept revealed that Google was planning a return to China and this time, it was prepared to abide by the Chinese government's rules. It was working on a search engine that censored results related to democracy, human rights, religion, and protests, dubbed Dragonfly.
Google only canceled the Dragonfly project after facing a wave of protests. Nevertheless, it seems this isn't the last we've heard of it. During a US Senate hearing, Karan Bhatia, Google's vice president of public policy, declined to confirm whether Google would develop another censored search engine for China.
8. It censors search results and YouTube videos for politicians and billionaires
Numerous governments, including those in the so-called free world, frequently instruct Google to censor certain content on platforms like Blogger, Search, and YouTube. Governments, political parties, and billionaires push Google to remove content for a variety of reasons. These include defamation, privacy violations, hate speech, national security concerns, and copyright infringement. However, political influence and attempts to sway public opinion during elections is another reason, and one that's far from justified.
Governments may request Google to remove content for a variety of unreasonable reasons. They can ask Google to take down anything they deem offensive, even if it doesn’t violate any laws. The only requirement is that the government disapproves of it.
In Argentina, the government forced Google to remove content exposing a government official accused of sexual harassment. In Brazil, Google was instructed to remove blog posts and search results that criticized judges and uncovered fraud.
Germany requested Google to delete a Google Maps review that involved two government officials working with the child protective services. The officials were allegedly involved in the sexual abuse of two children. Yet, instead of being sent to court, one of the officials was simply relocated to another district.
There are countless other cases, and this is only the tip of the iceberg. While Google claims it doesn't always comply with such requests, it's unclear how accurate that statement is.
7. It discontinued its weekly TGIF meetings
In 2019, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, decided to cancel the weekly Thank God It’s Friday (TGIF) meetings. From then on, the meetings would occur just once a month, with discussions limited to Google's business matters.
The weekly TGIF meetings were a Google tradition starting in 1999, when Google was a smaller company. These gatherings reflected the atmosphere of a close-knit community, with employees connecting and sharing ideas.
As Google grew, the tone of the meetings shifted. The conversations began to focus on workplace concerns. Employees raised issues like Google’s censorship practices, its close ties to the US government, sexual harassment, and other related matters.
The meetings put a strain on the relationship between employees and management. Even founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin stopped attending, unable to handle the growing tensions. Additionally, memos from these meetings leaked to the media, causing embarrassment for Google.
6. It prevented the Swedish government from adding a new word to its language
In 2012, the Language Council of Sweden introduced a new word to the Swedish language: 'ogooglebar'. It was defined as '[Something] you can’t find on the web using a search engine.'
Google took an interest in this new word and requested that the council replace 'a search engine' with 'Google'. The council rejected the request, explaining that Swedes had already adopted the term to mean anything they couldn't find using any search engine. Google, however, insisted that the word should only refer to things not found on Google itself.
The council declined and removed the word from its official list of Swedish terms. A spokeswoman noted that while the word would no longer be officially recognized, it remained a part of the Swedish language. Google might prevent the council from using it officially, but it can't stop regular Swedes from using the term in everyday conversations.
5. It removed hundreds of Donald Trump ads for no apparent reason
In 2019, YouTube removed over 300 ads from Trump's reelection campaign without providing a clear reason. The platform cited 'company policy' as the justification for taking down the ads.
YouTube declined to offer further details on how the ads violated 'company policy' or which specific policy was breached. However, it denied that the removal was politically motivated. YouTube’s CEO, Susan Wojcicki, stated that the ads were unapproved, despite the fact that they had been running for several days.
4. It punished employees for protesting sexual harassment
In November 2018, 20,000 employees and contractors walked out of Google offices in 50 cities worldwide. They were protesting a range of issues, including workers' rights, sexual harassment, and Google's mistreatment of contractors.
The protest was considered successful. Google made some concessions to placate the demonstrators and praised Claire Stapleton and six other key protest leaders. However, beneath the surface, the company began a campaign against Stapleton and the other organizers.
Stapleton left Google the following year, stating that her career had taken a downturn after the protest. She claimed that her supervisors isolated her and subjected her to intense stress, which ultimately led to her resignation.
They initially threatened to demote her, but changed their stance only after she involved her lawyers. However, their behavior grew more hostile, redirecting her tasks to others and suggesting she take medical leave.
3. It imposed a ban on an entire subdomain
Google is known for censoring websites it suspects of spamming its users. However, it once went too far by blocking every site under the .co.cc subdomain.
This subdomain had over 11 million websites, making it one of the largest in the world. It was owned by a South Korean company that provided free website creation services and allowed users to create up to 15,000 websites for just $1,000.
Google stated that it blocked the subdomain due to the prevalence of spam websites. While this rationale may seem justified, it overlooks the fact that many legitimate websites were also hosted on this subdomain.
2. The company prohibited its employees from discussing political matters at work.
Google once hosted mailing lists and forums where employees could engage in debates, share information, or chat about a variety of topics. This free exchange of ideas was open to everyone until 2019, when the executives decided to impose a ban on political discussions.
Executives also made it clear that employees were forbidden from making comments that could 'insult, demean, or humiliate' other colleagues or the company's business partners. While the term 'business partner' remains somewhat ambiguous, it’s open to interpretation, especially in light of Google’s recent actions, such as the dismissal of two conservative programmers.
1. The company imposed a blacklist on harmless instant search results.
Not long ago, Google featured an instant search tool that showed live search results as users typed in their queries. However, users began noticing that the tool failed to work when certain words were entered. It was later revealed that Google had intentionally censored those words.
While many of the censored words were crude, some were harmless and carried no sexual implications. These included terms like Latina, ecstasy, amateur, ball kicking, Asian babe, fantasies, fetal, girl on, incest, licked, lovers, mature, submissive, teen, and 'Google is evil'.
A spokesperson explained that Google’s algorithm was malfunctioning. The system censored words if they had been previously used in a sexual context, but this also affected searches for nonsexual content. The spokesperson assured that Google was working to remove harmless terms from the blacklist.
