how bad is google being censored?

[bobo]

While looking at google groups for some *generic and scientifically useful* information, I found some thread made no sense at all. I think some posts were just missing. This annoyed the hell out of me, because at first I thought some fucktard at google is meticulously deleting posts from .sci groups for the fun of being an ass. But then, I realised I read something somewhere about google being forced by US government about linking to bombz and kewlz and probably they have a list of dangerous terms. Probably, my perfectly sanctioned, government funded research is hampered by me wasting time trying to make sense of newsgroup threads that have been castrated, the useful info cut out leaving a mass of hardly comprehensible flames and whatnot with only a hint at a shadow of useful information.

Is this just the paranoia of a basement chemist or is the freedom of information truly a thing of the past? If so, are there ways around this hideous, invisible but very powerful form of repression?

[T_Pyro]

"Mind control" does exist, but I'm not sure as to how bad it really is, 'coz they won't exactly be putting up a list of sites "not to be visited". There was an outcry here recently after the Govt. ordered all ISP's to block access to a particular page on Yahoo groups which had seditious statements. The ISP's were crazy enough to go and block access to the entire Yahoo groups, leading to a furore over the right to free speech, and the page in question recorded a record no. of hits per day after that. :rolleyes:

In another (possibly unrelated) finding, I found that whenever I try to access Wouter's page, I get a dns error, but if I use an "anonymizer" type proxy, the page shows up normally.

Ways around this? Use proxies. I'm not going to give out names of proxies, you should do a search on your own- there are many free services which might not take too kindly to a sudden increase in their load.

[bobo]

I was talking of usenet, and then especially the google portal. I might try to get a good news server that does not have a censorship problem.

[Bert]

An interesting google result for some searches I've done in the last couple of days-

A paramedic who's a relative of my girlfriend was shot while responding to a bombing and fire in Kansas City a couple of days ago. There have been several articles on this occurrence put on web versions of various newspapers and web sites of the local TV news- None will show up on google searches for key words that are in those articles Going directly to the local news organizations sites and doing the same search terms pulls up the related articles immediately... Wonder if the words "bomb" and "explosion" are verboten for google searches of American news? A whole load of other things that SHOULD have come up on those Google searches also didn't.

Play with this- should be interesting, go look for stuff you KNOW is there and see if Google has gone blind to material containing certain terms.

[NightStalker]

Google doesn't archive most news station sites, as the contents change every day and are of a temporary nature.

Though I'm sure that there are plenty of "bad" words that aren't being listed by Google, there are plenty that are, and most of them are here! :)

Look for any number of naughty things and you'll get this site. I believe there is a thread by NBK about Google listings for various E&W related search words. Though you'd already have to know what kind of words to look for to find us. Searching for "bombz" doesn't bring us up. :D

[PobodysNerfect]

The thing is, the only real way to avoid Google's censoring would be to somehow bypass Google (I would imagine...)
The best way to do this IMO would be to do a Google search, and then find the relevant URL's. Then copy and paste them in your address bar. If this doesn't work, then maybe just going to the particular forum and searching from there may be a good idea.

I may be wrong, though. It might not be Google but the operators of the sites.

[T_Pyro]

It's unlikely that Google would be "censoring" the sites. Most probably the mind police are using IP filters to block specific domains and/or URL's. Copying & Pasting URL's will have no different effect.

[Jacks Complete]

To bypass Google, go to msn.com, yahoo.com, dogpile.co.uk, etc.

Anyhow, I have found that the Google news search is a bit funny. It seems that things just drop off so fast that they aren't there two days later!

[bobo]

yes that's precisely what I suspected but could not prove. Things disappear as fast as.... adresses for chemical vendors posted on this forum :p

[GibboNet]

Last time I lost the URL to the kazaa lite forums, I did a search in google, and at the bottom of the page they had a notice explaining that some results were blocked due to legal action or something a-rather.

I know it's not directly related to this, but I seriously doubt they would block cerain results like that, unless there was a legal problem, in which case they seem to put up a notice about it.

[nbk2000]

I just found a snippet in a Newsweek article about Google:


In its foreign language versions, Google will follow the local laws, removing, for instance, Holocaust-denial sites.


I already know that they are referring to Germany. Must be nice to be a Jew with a lock on the internet.

Oh, and they also caved in to the scientologist wackos, so you'll not be finding any badmouthing about them on Google either. :rolleyes:

[metafractal]

Specifically:
http://asp-cyber.law.harvard.edu/filtering/google/list.html

[tmp]

I use many different search engines. If I don't find what I'm looking for with
a particular search engine, I use another. I have found that ISPs are more
guilty of censoring information and/or free speech than any search engine.
For example, AOL sent an e-mail and a snail mail to a friend of mine for the
crime of calling George W. Bush an asshole. Another friend got a similar
response from AOL when his daughter was using foul language in a chat room.
I've convinced both of my friends to switch to cable-based ISPs. It costs
more, but the faster downloads, not tying up the phone line, and lack of
censoring makes it worth it. The cable people, Comcast, apparently, don't
give a shit about censoring. They're only interested in the money and that's
the way it should be !

To NBK2000, back in the 80's I recall that a man in Canada was sent to
prison for openly denying that the Holocaust happened. I don't know if this
law is still on the books. Apparently, mind crime is punishable in Canada !

BTW, our president, "W", is calling for more affordable high-speed internet
access for Americans. I won't bitch if my rates go down !

[nbk2000]

Tmp:

I've often referred to Kanada as "The Democratic Peoples Republic of Snow" and "The Great White Wasteland", precisely because of the communistic tendencies of the government.