Google Declares War On Alternative Media: Plans to Punish “False News” By Halting Ad Revenue
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Google has decided to make itself the arbiter of
what is “true” and what is “false,” placing alternative media in the
cross-hairs of its war on free speech and the free flow of information.
Credit – CNN
Since the US Election’s “surprise” outcome, supporters
of Hillary Clinton have been searching for who and what to blame. One of
the more bizarre theories circulating has been that Google, Twitter,
and Facebook, who WikiLeaks revealed were actually colluding with Clinton’s campaign to get her elected, were to blame
for distributing “fake” and “false” news that painted Clinton in a bad
light and “unduly” influenced public opinion against her. In order to
take the heat off of themselves, Google and Facebook have now announced
measures that will target so-called “fake news” on the internet by
cutting off how the writers of such content make money – advertising.
Google sets due to the most damage to alternative news content creators as its AdSense advertising network.
AdSense allows advertisers to place text ads on millions of websites
that are a part of its network and is a major source of money for many
publishers. In the wake of last week’s election, Google is now working
on a policy change that would prevent websites that Google deems “false”
or “misleading” from using AdSense. Google has long had rules
for AdSense, such as barring ads from appearing next to pornographic or
violent content. It uses a combination of human and artificial
intelligence to comb through sites’ content, with the artificial
intelligence learning from sites removed from the program, making the
process faster and more efficient. Essentially, Google is hoping to
starve websites that don’t fit the mainstream media’s “truthful”
narrative. Fil Menczer, Professor of Informatics and Computing at
Indiana University, told Reuters
that Google’s new policy “could cut the income that creates the
incentive to create the fake news sites.” Facebook has followed suit by
updating its own advertising policies to include “fake news” in its ban
on deceptive and misleading content.
However, there’s a big problem with all of this. What is
“fake news”? Anything that could be construed to be a “conspiracy
theory” could easily be placed in this category, as could any content
that is critical of the “system,” of which Google is a part. More
importantly, why is Google being allowed to be the official arbiter of
what is true and what is false on the internet? It seems doubtful that
Google would target the lies of the mainstream, corporate-owned media
since it is beholden to those same interests. Considering Google’s significant CIA connections, there is likely an agenda here. Trust in the corporate media is at an all-time low
while the viewership of the alternative media has grown significantly.
This change has happened, in part, because of dishonest reporting from
the corporate media. For example, after this year’s election,The New
York Times admitted its election coverage had been partial and
inaccurate and promised to “rededicate” themselves to honest reporting. However, they and other media outlets like them will not be targeted by Google’s new policy.
By cutting off the alternative media’s income, Google
can help kill off the dying corporate media’s competition and lessen the
alternative media’s competing narratives. If people are legitimately
worried about “false” news, they should investigate or look to confirm
any and all stories they read. If there are no hyperlinks or sources in
the story and it cannot be confirmed elsewhere, caution is urged.
Regardless, people should be able to make up their own minds about what
they are reading, not be forced to let Google make that decision for
them.
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