Google’s Long, Sordid History of Rampantly Abusing Its Massive Power
All Hail the King - or Else
Uber-huge mega-company Google has been of late repeatedly buffeted by very unflattering news. Story after story demonstrating Google’s corporate philosophy of using its massive power to bend others to its will - and break those who won’t.
Some of us have been chronicling this for years. But now it is breaking into the very mainstream.
The Dutch boy removing his digit from the Google news dyke - was James Damore. Damore, a Google engineer, wrote a memorandum detailing the surprising oneness of Google’s hive mind.
Google’s Ideological Diversity: Making Colleges and Robert Mueller Look Good
Google Employee's Anti-Diversity Memo Goes Viral, Prompts Response from Execs
The response from Google’s execs?
Google Fires Employee Behind Anti-Diversity Memo
Oops. What these stories of Google’s internal ideological tyranny did - was draw new, additional and much deserved attention to Google’s external ideological tyranny. And those stories started pouring out.
Google CEO: 'Vast Majority' Of Googlers Back My Decision To Fire Damore. Poll: NOPE.
Which means very many Googlers are afraid to tell their CEO what they actually think - if what they think deviates from the Borg collective.
One Statistics Professor Was Just Banned By Google: Here Is His Story: “(Georgetown University) Statistics professor Salil Mehta…was banned by Google on Friday. What did Salil do to provoke Google? It is not entirely clear, however what is clear is that his repeated attempts at restoring his email, blog and other Google-linked accounts have so far been rejected with a blanket and uniform statement from the search giant. Here is what happened, in Salil Mehta's own words.
“‘Freedom is not free unless corporations who exert a large influence in our lives believe in our well-being….I was completely shut down in all my Google accounts (all of my gmail accounts, blog, all of my university pages that were on google sites, etc.) for no reason and no warning. A number of us were stunned and unsure, but clearly we know at this point it wasn’t an accident.”
Is Professor Mehta alone in this Google banishment fate? Of course not. Of course, being President Donald Trump supporters can very easily bring down the wrath of Google (which owns monster video website YouTube).
But it isn’t just ideological.
Anti-Corporate Voices On Both Right And Left Claim Google Censorship
Yes, Google Uses Its Power to Quash Ideas It Doesn’t Like—I Know Because It Happened to Me
New America Foundation Think Tank Ousted Google Critic at Search Giant’s Urging: “An influential U.S. think tank cut off ties to an analyst critical of Google’s market dominance under pressure from Eric Schmidt, the search giant’s chairman and a major donor.”
Companies That Challenged Google’s Monopoly See Antitrust Critics’ Firing As A Threat
How Google Uses Its Power To Silence Critics
NYT: Google Buys Off Non-Profits To Silence Criticism
And these are just the very recent stories. Going back a bit….
Google is Rigging Searches for Hillary Clinton
Google is STILL Rigging Searches for Hillary Clinton
Going back a bit more….
Google’s Remarkably Close Relationship With the Obama White House
Google Search for 'Completely Wrong' Yields Page of Mitt Romney Photos
Even the hugest and Left-est of uber-Left Google supporters - was long ago warning us.
Google is Coming after Critics in Academia and Journalism. It’s Time to Stop Them: “About 10 years ago, Tim Wu, the Columbia Law professor who coined the term network neutrality, made this prescient comment: ‘To love Google, you have to be a little bit of a monarchist, you have to have faith in the way people traditionally felt about the king.’”
Any of you out there a monarchist?
Any of you “have faith in the way people traditionally felt about the king?”
I know one thing - I wouldn't have been a later 1700s Colonial Royalist. I’d have sided with George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and the rest of the gaggle looking to throw off the yoke of the Crown.
And that’s exactly where I am right now.
This first appeared in Red State.