Tag: google

Google’s App “Quality” Crackdown Raises Censorship Concerns

AppCensorship, a project that monitors and reports about censorship on major app stores, is warning that Google’s decision to start removing what it considers low-quality apps could lead to consequences other than “improving quality and user experience.”

An article on the project’s site notes that while some users see Google’s move as a positive and justified step, others see the potential for censorship “baked in” the decision.

The second point of view is all the more important given the amount of apps that Google removes from the Play Store over a year. The giant’s newest transparency report cites the number as 2.28 million – 59% more compared to the 1.43 million in the previous period.

But AppCensorship writes that the transparency report itself – and large media outlets reporting about it – all focus on the numbers without engaging in what the project calls a complete picture that would include discussion around (removal) policy, analysis, and critical examination.

Otherwise, the article warns, we may be looking at the media “lending them (app removal statistics) a degree of credibility disconnected from substantive scrutiny.”

As far as Google is concerned, the activity around the Play Store is proof that it is improving security, but also the app review process, and incorporating “advanced machine learning.”

On the flip side are fears that, as the article put it, Google may be using “its influence and high market share to dictate the global app environment.”

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Federal Judge Declares Google a Monopolist, Setting the Stage for Major Industry Shakeup

On Monday, a pivotal ruling from a federal judge declared that Google had breached antitrust regulations in its quest to dominate the online search and advertising sectors. Judge Amit Mehta’s decision noted that Google had perpetuated its monopoly through specific strategies that violated section 2 of the Sherman Act.

We obtained a copy of the ruling for you here.

The lawsuit, which commenced in 2020, later expanded to include multiple states and territories, encapsulating the gravity and scale of the legal scrutiny Google faces. Early in the trial, government attorney Kenneth Dintzer articulated that the proceedings would significantly influence the future of internet governance.

The trial’s largely private proceedings sparked criticism from transparency advocates, who accused Google of trying to minimize public oversight and media exposure. Google had successfully argued that opening up the trial fully would risk exposing sensitive trade secrets.

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Senator Marshall Officially Launches Investigation Against Google for Alleged Election Interference — Accused of Rigging Search Results to Prioritize Left-Wing Propaganda

Kansas Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS) has announced an investigation into Google, accusing the woke tech giant of manipulating search results to suppress information regarding the recent assassination attempt on President Trump.

Over the weekend, users across various platforms reported that searches for terms related to the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump yielded no relevant autocomplete suggestions.

Instead, the algorithm appeared to prioritize historical incidents involving other political figures, such as Presidents Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan, along with unrelated events like the shooting of musician Bob Marley.

“This raises serious questions about Google’s intentions,” Senator Marshall tweeted. “Why is Google suppressing the search about the Trump assassination attempt? These are all screenshots from this morning. Has there been a dramatic increase in Truman biographers in the last two weeks?”

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Here’s MORE Evidence of ELECTION INTERFERENCE from Google

As Twitchy reported earlier, a search for “assassination attempt on Tr …” led Google to helpfully autocomplete the request with … Truman? “Assassination attempt on Truman” is the first search result? There are seven suggested searches there, and not one of them mentions Donald Trump.

Google explained that its systems automatically “have protections against Autocomplete predictions associated with political violence” — no one person interfered with the results. That was debunked pretty quickly by showing searches for plenty of other searches associated with political violence, such as the Kenosha riots.

Now we have more evidence of election interferences from Google. We tried this ourselves and got the same results, so this is not a “cheap fake.”

Seriously — type “Donald Trump” into Google’s search bar and you get results for “News about Harris • Donald Trump” and search results like “Kamala Harris allies deploy new Trump attack line: he is ‘just plain weird'” and “Andrew Cuomo: Here’s How Harris Can Beat Trump and His Stream of Lies.”

Type in “Kamala Harris” and you get results about … “Kamala Harris.”

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Google says it took ‘no manual action’ to hide Trump assassination attempt from search suggestions

Google’s search engine conspicuously left out Donald Trump in autocomplete suggestions for “assassination,” “assassination attempt” and even “president donald” Sunday, drawing criticism from social media users including X owner Elon Musk that it was censoring recent history.

The curious suggestions recalled FBI Director Chris Wray questioning whether a bullet even hit the blood-streaked Republican presidential nominee in the attempted assassination, which the bureau walked back after backlash from conservative lawmakers.

Google quickly responded to a Just the News query on the assassination-specific search suggestions, which were highlighted in multiple posts by Libs of TikTok Sunday and verified by House and Senate lawmakers, at least one state attorney general and Just the News.

Musk noted that the suggested finish for “President Donald” was “Duck,” the Disney character, and “Regan,” President Reagan’s chief of staff Donald Reagan, as of late Sunday. (“Trump” had replaced “Duck” in Google suggestions Monday morning when Just the News checked.)

Even an explicit search for “assassination attempt trump” and “president donald trump” returned no suggestions over a 13-hour period from Sunday to Monday morning.

“These are all screenshots from this morning. Has there been a dramatic increase in Truman biographers in the last two weeks?” Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Miss., posted on X, referring to Google’s suggestion to search for the assassination attempt on former President Harry Truman but not former President Trump. “I’ll be making an official inquiry” to Google this week.

Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, agreed that Congress should investigate Google’s search suggestions.

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Big Tech Caught Suppressing Search Results, Other Information About Trump Assassination Attempt

On Sunday, several Big Tech companies faced intense backlash after it appeared that they were suppressing search results related to the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. Now, they’re facing accusations of election interference, and even a Senate investigation.

Google users began noticing that the search engine’s Autocomplete function was omitting results related to the assassination attempt against Trump. Social media users began to spread similar images online, and soon, members of government, as well as Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, had picked up examples of their own. 

Trump’s assassination attempt was nowhere to be seen, even when users searched “the assassination attempt of” in the Google search bar.

The New York Post tested the theory themselves, using the last names of U.S. presidents who were assassinated or faced attempted assassination, followed by the letters “assassi” to see what autocomplete suggested. While each of these were given helpful, related results, Trump’s assassination attempt was nowhere to be found when typed in. 

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Google Jigsaw, GIFCT, and Tech Against Terrorism Develop Altitude: A Controversial Tool to Monitor “Potential” Extremist Content, Raising Censorship Concerns

There are suspected, and investigated instances of Big Government-Big Tech collusion.

And then there’s Google.

And within Google, there’s something now called Jigsaw. But that’s a rebranding of something Eric Schmidt thought of more than a decade ago, and was originally called Google Ideas.

Before the rebranding, way back when, Google Ideas was in the news for alleged ties with the US State Department (of the time).

So – what’s Jigsaw up to now?

Misinformation. Disinformation. Toxicity. Terrorism even. Against, obviously. “Climate change” – not cited but probably pending – is what this particular portion of Google is now involved with, working with the likes of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT).

Google Jigsaw was always about geopolitics, alarming as that information may be, bearing in mind the way Google reaches those billions of people around the world in the first place. Search. Videos. Fun.

GIFCT, meanwhile, brings together Big Tech and the UN-backed Tech Against Terrorism initiative. And GIFCT is seen as one of those large, tech-industry-spanning entities, that use their great power for the evil – namely, censorship.

But it does get worse. The Tech Against Terrorism is known for making alarming statements about matters like undefined “conspiracies,” but also content featuring “tradwives.” Well, that surely falls way clear of anything related to – terrorism. Or anything.

Other than the overall question – where’s our tax money going when it’s given to the UN, the same question arises specifically in the US and the EU – when Jigsaw announces its (Project) Altitude?

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GOOGLE PLANNED TO SPONSOR IDF CONFERENCE THAT NOW DENIES GOOGLE WAS SPONSOR

THE “IT FOR IDF” conference in Rishon LeZion, just south of Tel Aviv, brought together tech firms from across the world to support the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza and beyond.

Many of the assembled companies are not household names in the United States, but several multinational firms — like Nokia, Dell, and Canon — were present at July 10 event.

The mission they had gathered to support was clear. Onstage, a brigadier general with the Israeli military gave a presentation that connected the Nakba, the 1967 Arab–Israeli War, the 2006 invasion of Lebanon, the current war on Gaza, and more wars in the decades to come. His call to action splashed across the big screen: “Each generation and its own turn — this is our watch!”

One company, however, was conspicuously absent: Google.

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YouTube Tightens Stranglehold On Firearms Content — Blocks All Gun-related Sponsors

When Google and YouTube first announced that they would be demonetizing a host of channels back in 2017 (including firearms-related content) they said is was because advertisers were “complaining” about their ads being featured in videos that were contrary to their messaging.  In other words, the excuse was that ads embedded on firearms channels might give their customers the “wrong impression” about those companies and their products, and Google didn’t want to anger their advertising partners.

It’s hard to say how accurate this claim was. The exposure of ESG and Big Tech collusion with government agencies to censor conservative platforms supports the idea that there was probably an organized corporate push to suppress the political opposition on YouTube as much as there was an effort to shut them down on social media.

The majority of conservative content creators understood that this was not about advertisers, it was about narratives.  The exploding popularity of gun channels runs contrary to the media assertion that American society is moving increasingly to the left.  And, even though gun channels mostly focus on firearms and instruction, they also promoted conservative and constitutional values which represent a thorn in the side of the establishment.

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Google Plans New Content-Scanning Censorship Tech

Earlier in the year, Google filed an application to patent new methods, systems, and media for what the giant calls “identifying videos containing objectionable content” that are uploaded to a social site or video service.

For example, YouTube – though the filing doesn’t explicitly name this platform.

The patent application, which has just been published this month, is somewhat different from other automated “methods and systems” Google and other giants, notably Microsoft, already have to power their censorship apparatus; with this one, the focus is more on how AI can be added to the mix.

More and more often, various countries are introducing censorship laws where the speed at which content is removed or accounts blocked is a major requirement made of social media companies. Google could have this in mind when the patent’s purpose is said to be to improve on detecting objectionable content quickly, “for potential removal.”

No surprise here, but what should be the key question – namely, what is considered as “objectionable content” – is less of a definition and more a list that can be further expanded, variously interpreted, etc., and the list includes such items as violence, pornography, objectionable language, animal abuse, and then the cherry on top – “and/or any other type of objectionable content.”

The filing details how Google’s new system works, and we equally unsurprisingly learn that AI here means machine learning (ML) and neural networks. This technology is supposed to mimic the human brain but comes down to a series of equations, differentiated from ordinary algorithms by “learning” about what an image (or a video in this case) is, pixel by pixel.

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