4 ms·

Google used to censor Scientology and Nazi pages for U.S and German searches. Are they still doing this?

sahaj 17y ago
a quick search: http://www.google.com/search?q=scientology http://www.google.com/search?q=scientology takes you directly to the homepage of the church of scientology. http://www.google.com/search?q=nazi http://www.google.com/search?q=nazi 4th link is for the american nazi party. those two subjects don't look to be censored.
- abrahamsen 17y ago
  http://xenu.net http://xenu.net used to be the top hit for Scientology in google.com. It was removed after a DMCA complaint. Apparently, it is back up. Search for "google scientology" for background. The google.de was accused of censoring holocaust-denial sites (they would appear on google.com). I don't know a high profile holocaust denial site to check it out.
Frazzydee 17y ago
Not sure about that, but they do censor child pornography. Like their practices in China, there is a note at the bottom saying that results have been censored. Try this search: http://www.google.ca/search?q=TiP5As2jNc http://www.google.ca/search?q=TiP5As2jNc
wooster 17y ago
As far as I can tell, the Scientology thing was due to a DMCA takedown notice by the Church of Scientology. Due to that, Google now publishes all DMCA requests here: http://chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi http://chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi They also link to those DMCA requests as search results when applicable. They don't censor results on Nazis in the US. For a rundown of their censorship (almost always government mandated), see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_by_Google http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_by_Google
- analyst74 17y ago
  1, the censorship being asked by US government is less evil (or not at all, depends on your standard) 2, US market is bigger, and even if they can afford to lose the world's biggest market (no they can't), relocating headquater would be a lot more costly. Moral has a price, it is just a lot harder to determine and even harder to admit.
fnid2 17y ago
There was the censoring of the autocomplete in the islam is thing too. When you're madly in love with Google, or anything for that matter, you gotta pick and choose which things to remember and which motivations to imagine, but I don't like google, so maybe that's why I can see through some of the irrationality. I don't feel one way or the other about china, but I do believe in certain social customs that google is ignoring.

sahaj 17y ago

a quick search: http://www.google.com/search?q=scientology http://www.google.com/search?q=scientology takes you directly to the homepage of the church of scientology. http://www.google.com/search?q=nazi http://www.google.com/search?q=nazi 4th link is for the american nazi party. those two subjects don't look to be censored.

abrahamsen 17y ago
http://xenu.net http://xenu.net used to be the top hit for Scientology in google.com. It was removed after a DMCA complaint. Apparently, it is back up. Search for "google scientology" for background. The google.de was accused of censoring holocaust-denial sites (they would appear on google.com). I don't know a high profile holocaust denial site to check it out.

Frazzydee 17y ago

Not sure about that, but they do censor child pornography. Like their practices in China, there is a note at the bottom saying that results have been censored. Try this search: http://www.google.ca/search?q=TiP5As2jNc http://www.google.ca/search?q=TiP5As2jNc

wooster 17y ago

As far as I can tell, the Scientology thing was due to a DMCA takedown notice by the Church of Scientology. Due to that, Google now publishes all DMCA requests here: http://chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi http://chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi They also link to those DMCA requests as search results when applicable. They don't censor results on Nazis in the US. For a rundown of their censorship (almost always government mandated), see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_by_Google http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_by_Google

analyst74 17y ago
1, the censorship being asked by US government is less evil (or not at all, depends on your standard) 2, US market is bigger, and even if they can afford to lose the world's biggest market (no they can't), relocating headquater would be a lot more costly. Moral has a price, it is just a lot harder to determine and even harder to admit.

fnid2 17y ago

There was the censoring of the autocomplete in the islam is thing too. When you're madly in love with Google, or anything for that matter, you gotta pick and choose which things to remember and which motivations to imagine, but I don't like google, so maybe that's why I can see through some of the irrationality. I don't feel one way or the other about china, but I do believe in certain social customs that google is ignoring.