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Tell HN: Google removes Russian news from results
Searching for "Russia Today" or "Sputnik News" doesn't return their URLs, but does return other related links. Seems to be related to a gov request: https://lumendatabase.org/notices/26927483#.
It's not a court order, so Google voluntarily decided to implement this.
Mildly interesting; I don't think anyone is surprised.
- markus_zhang 5y agoIf other search engines start to do similar things, it's going to be really dangerous for democracy.
- mmarq 5y agoThese outlets have been sanctioned by, at least, the EU. I think it’s safer to block them everywhere. Said that, they are part of the propaganda machine of a criminal regime, something akin to Der Stürmer. As far as I’m concerned, they shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
- auxfil 5y agoenjoy living in your brave new world
- nxm 5y agoThere’ll be a day when you’re labeled a member of another criminal regime. That’s how it ends. Is Google the ultimate judge of good and bad now?
- jstx1 5y agoThey aren't claiming to be the ultimate judge of anything; they can decide what results to serve and what results not to serve and they've been doing this since they started Google Search.
- moralestapia 5y agoDo not try to be obtuse, the issue is not whether they claim that or not, it's about their actions regarding content on their platform.
- jstx1 5y agoThat was exactly my point to the grandparent comment, I don’t get why you’re repeating it like it’s some kind of rebuttal.
- moralestapia 5y agoCringe. I'll explain. >They aren't claiming to be the ultimate judge of anything is a moot point, it doesn't go forward with the discussion, nor is in line with the intent of GPs comment. I kindly ask you not to be obtuse and you just take it further, wow, some people ...
- nojito 5y agoNo. This is from sanctions.
- jyu 5y agoImagine if instead of facing a judge and jury, you just get labeled as a dissident by one of Google's legally infallible black box AI filters. No longer can you use Email, Maps, News, Video, or any of the internet using Analytics. No person to talk to for trying to appeal the AI ruling.
- lozenge 5y ago"I think it’s safer to block them everywhere." Does that apply to all EU legal and extralegal decisions to block information? It would be funny if prominent US figures started using GDPR "right to be forgotten" to remove search results...
- mmarq 5y agoI mean that if I managed a news app and the EU sanctions forced me to remove RT from the results served in the EU, it would be easier and safer for remove them for everybody. Otherwise I’d risk to violate said sanctions.
- guidovranken 5y agoRead the books they want to ban. Thanks for the heads up.
- unraveller 5y agouBlocklist extension[1] lets you filter out URL hosts who have information supremacy delusions from your google/ddg news feed. [1]https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublacklist/pncfbmialoiaghdehhbnbhkkgmjanfhe?hl=en https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublacklist/pncfbmi...
- aaron695 5y ago
- iExploder 5y agoand in another news... russia removes european news, because thats propaganda you see, propaganda is only good when its OUR propaganda, and freedom of speech is only freedom when what you are speaking aligns with our values... you can have a discussion about anything as long as both sides fundamentally agree with the mainstream narrative
- rvz 5y agoUnsurprising. I’m just writing down all the nasty things that these private platforms can do when you cross the line somehow whenever they want.
- onedognight 5y agoThere are literally millions of web sites Google won’t index and not indexing this one makes them nasty? Bombing civilians and nuclear plants is nasty. Not making a copy of a web page? Not nasty. Google. has employees in Ukraine and Russia. Now one set is running for their lives and the other is hard to pay.
- rvz 5y agoWhat's nasty is that Google can do this to ANY news site (and they have), even if the other side covers parts of the whole story which was missed by the mainstream media and they will avoid and will not cover it because it doesn't fit their narrative. > Bombing civilians and nuclear plants is nasty. Not making a copy of a web page? Not nasty. It's also nasty to spread and amplify misleading propaganda on either side isn't it? It's a two-way street and this action amplifies it more on the other side; causing the misinformation and the nasty actions you see online. It's reactionary and completely nasty. > Now one set is running for their lives and the other is hard to pay. And both sides will get targeted and filtered propaganda to get themselves into a situation like this. That is just one of thousands of things Google can do voluntarily to so called excuse of to 'stop the spread of misinformation' as it has surely has done a great job at doing so with YouTube didn't it?
- Tenoke 5y ago>Mildly interesting; I don't think anyone is surprised. I am surprised. I didn't expect to be Great Firewall'd without fanfare as an European and I haven't seen Google Search be quite that heavy handed before. I also get a message that I can't access RT's Twitter from Germany nor can I search what they are saying in Russia directly in any of the usual places.
- bjourne 5y agoA censorship resistant search engine in sorely needed.
- ComradePhil 5y agoI have said it before[1][2] and I will say it again: The Chinese model of online information management has been extremely successful and there is no reason for other rulers to not try to copy it. India has it in place[3], Russia is trying to do it [4]... and the west has been doing it too and it is done by making it seem like people have free choice of posting infromation but having tech companies remove, hide, shadow-ban, or otherwise limit the spread of information dangerous to the rulers. This is inevitable and there are no other options. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30510857 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30510857 [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30492226 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30492226 [3] https://advox.globalvoices.org/2020/02/10/what-do-we-know-about-the-great-firewall-of-india/ https://advox.globalvoices.org/2020/02/10/what-do-we-know-ab... [4] https://www.economist.com/business/russia-is-trying-to-build-its-own-great-firewall/21807706 https://www.economist.com/business/russia-is-trying-to-build...
- someonehere 5y agoTrying to pretend there isn’t one world power at work here is kinda making the conspiracy theorists sound reasonable.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- kderbyma 5y agoI want of freedom of speech ... this is how Google makes us dumb....and bugs up all the good deals... it's COVID all over again. far news from the trusted sources.
- gotohater 5y agoI understand the point of freedom of speech, but isn't it going a bit too far with the conspiracy theories?
- onedognight 5y agoGoogle doesn’t control speech. You can go to RT’s site directly. It’s not blocked. However Twitter and FaceBook are blocked in Russia. The actual sites. Hmm.
- gt565k 5y agoThe case for a decentralized Web 3.0 grows by the minute.
- jrwan 5y agoI search “rt” and the first link Google returns is www.rt.com.
- jrwan 5y agoJust checked the the government request, probably this is just US/Europe thing?