I & I Editorial BoardWe recently wrote about how Google’s AdSense network was blocking ads from appearing on a page that cited government data about weather — calling it “unreliable and harmful” — presumably because the data didn’t support climate hysteria.
Now we find out that it’s blocking ads on an editorial we published over the weekend pointing out a glaring falsehood uttered by President Joe Biden in his debate with Donald Trump last Thursday.
The article doesn’t just assert that Biden was lying when he said that the economy was in “a freefall” when he came into office — we proved it was a lie.
See for yourself here — “How Did The Army Of Debate ‘Fact Checkers’ Miss This Biden Whopper?“
For the record, here’s how Google describes this particular policy violation.
Does Google consider criticism of Biden as disparaging “an individual” on the basis of their “disability” or “age”? Does pointing out a presidential lie constitute harassment or bullying?
Or maybe Google believes that there is an “authoritative scientific consensus” that the economy was in a freefall when Biden took office — despite all evidence to the contrary?
Is Google accusing us of extortion? Is Google saying that we are encouraging Biden supporters to harm themselves?
Since none of these makes sense. Demonetizing this editorial can be described only as election interference. Google is purposefully cutting off the oxygen to facts that are critical of Biden. (We earlier noted that it was blocking its ads from appearing on an article that praised Trump’s record as president.)
But it raises another question. Google sells AdSense to companies as a way to reach vast audiences for relatively little money. Presumably, these companies are paying Google to get through to targeted audiences that would be interested in the products and services those companies are selling.
Do these companies know that Google is denying them access to audiences who are seeking out legitimate, truthful, journalistically sound content? And that Google is doing so for the sole reason that the content doesn’t fit with Google’s leftist political ideology? Google’s censorship doesn’t just cost content creators money, it costs advertisers lost business.
If we were paying customers of AdSense, we’d be furious.
— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
It’s tough but I’ve made it my 2024 goal to leave behind all things Google to the extent I can; whatever the price.
SCOTUS ruled against you last week. Private companies are free to do as they wish. You no longer have any 1st Amendment rights on pretty much any and every website social media etc.
I am not a lawyer.. but maybe find someone who is and ask about joining (or maybe heading a group of independent content producers like you to join) Murthy et al v. Missouri because you meet all three major criteria for article III standing; viz: injury in fact, causation, and redressability.
I am glad you mentioned this as I was thinking the same. It is what the Court has asked for.
1. Why not get a class action suit by advertisers on the scope/scale of reach claims?
2. Encourage readers to use DuckDuckGo.
I’m not a lawyer either-but here’s how I see it.
Google is a private company; so (while they are intentionally impeding free speech using their gaggle of “factchecking dictators as their point guards) I don’t believe Google can be legally faulted on this 1st Amendment point.
However, if you get one of the companies of AdSense to join in a suit against Google, can you not sue Google for defrauding the company. Google had persuaded to use Google?
The AdSense company paid Google money to advertise on its platforms. Google, by not allowing them to advertise-but who sold their scheme as “being allowed to advertise so long as we are paid as the middlemen” seems to me to have defrauded the AdSense companies that were inveigled by Google to advertise to all comers.
Just a few suggestions for Adsense alternatives: Infolinks, Decide, Edge, and/or RevContent. There are others but you get the idea. Stop being beholden to Google. Visit other conservative websites and see who they use for advertising.
Thanks. We use other ad networks, including some of the ones you mention. Just for the record — we decided to keep one spot for AdSense ads for the simple reason that it gives us a window into what type of content they are attacking and so we can let the public know.
Great idea! You should also report each violation to censortrack.org (it’s a pain but at least they’ll be a record).
Click on Tip Line and add it to their database. Cheers!