Like many people today I have my home web log hosted by Blogger.com. Since it is owned by the good people over at Google that means we're all just part of one big happy family. What started as a simple search engine has already expanded to include more Internet services that see it beginning to challenge traditional giants like Yahoo! and Microsoft.
With the announcement this week of a second share offering worth more than $4 billion U. S. it looks like Google is getting set for another buying spree. It's influence, power, and control of the Internet is already substantial; it will be interesting to see where Google stands in another year's time in relation to the other two.
I'm sure that most of you, and for good reason, are quite happy to see anyone challenge the authority of Uber Gates. Control of the dissemination of information and the means people communicate information, in the hands of one company or individual, has implications that would have given Joseph Goebbels reason to celebrate.
But before we start adorning Google in shining white armour and blindly welcome them as a saviour, maybe now's the time we give them a careful once over. Aside from a few accusations of high-handedness from the publishing world, at first glance Google seems pretty clean. Recently something has happened which has led me to question this assessment.
Circumstances of the past few days have made me examine a feature of its blog sites and made me question its appropriateness and potential for misuse and exploitation. In no way should the following be taken as an accusation of censorship against Google personally. The problem is that Google has allowed that potential to exist.
Recently I conducted an extensive interview with the Indian writer Ashok Banker. I posted it on my Blogger home site, at Blogcritics.org, and at the Blogging News Network. In this interview, Mr. Banker was open and frank about expressing his opinions on a variety of subjects, which to my mind made it all the more interesting.
But it seems there is a chance other people may not have agreed with my assessment and have taken steps to silence Mr. Banker. The day after the interview appeared Mr. Banker's access to publishing at his weblog has been denied. There are no discernable technical reasons to be found; his server and his ISP are working fine, no one else in India, or anywhere else, is having trouble posting to Blogger.com; some other reason must be postulated.
Article comments
1 - Anon
Shoot first and ask questions later, eh?
2 - Angie
Do you know if he has contacted Blogger with the problem?? Have they looked into this at all??
3 - simon hb
Erm... if people flag a Blogger site, then it's removed from the public listing: the idea being that if people are surfing along the 'next blog' link, up until now there's been no way of trying to ensure they won't come across a picture of a horse having sex with a man or chunks of race hate. Being flagged doesn't have your access to your blog blocked.
In effect, what has actually happened here is: bloke has trouble logging in to his blogger account. Which, you know, happens to everyone from time to time.
Yes, we need to keep an eye on what Google gets up. We need to keep an eye on what everyone gets up to. But let's not always assume that everything that happens is because someone doesn't like what is being said.
4 - Dave Nalle
Yes, but he has a point about the flagging thing. Why can't I just go to every site whose politics I disagree with and flag it with the result that it will eventually be shut down - isn't that what the real concern is?
Dave
5 - Victor Plenty
Oddly enough, when I went to check out "the flagging thing," I went to gypsyman's blogspot page and clicked the Next Blog button to see if I'd find something that needed to be flagged.
What I found was not a political view I disagreed with. Instead I found a blog that didn't even finish loading before it redirected my browser to a porno personals page. That sort of helped me understand why Google feels maybe they need a little help with moderating the blogs they host.
One more minor quibble on terminology. Censorship is not really an accurate term for this. Censorship is something governments do. If Google declines to host your blog for free, you can always pay someone else to host it. Google won't lift a finger to stop you. If a government censors you, you risk prison or death by trying to circumvent their ban.
6 - gypsyman
I agree that companies need a way of controlling what appears on their hosted sites, I'm just saying that this method of allowing an individuals site to be blocked by any group who disagrees with their opinion is dangerous.
Thanks Dave for catching that point.
At no time did I acuuse Google of censorship, I merely said they have created the means to allow other people the ability to censor someones opinion if they disagreed with it. Censorship is censorship no matter who does it. You can censor what your child watches on tv, and your not the government.
To answer the question about tech support, Blogger has been contacted, as of last Friday, India time, and there has been no responce. Now as we all know they are notoriusly slow, so Ashok is not dismissing a tech problem yet. Although every potential thing has so far been checked.
I've posted over at our group asking Phillip for suggestions as to what could have happened. The fact remains that his access to publishing has been denied since he posted an article linking to the interview here. He's even attempted to circumvent their posting template, to see if that was the problem, and up load directly from his computer, with no more success.
You can see why he wonders if somebody has been messing with the flaging system. Again neither he nor I think that the people at Blogger had anything to do with this, but that it was co-ordinated by someone very well organized to block his opinions.
Ironicaly Ashok has one of the least political blogs on the net. The only time I have ever heard him venture a political opinion (publicaly) was in the interview.
Oh well, I'm still hoping his incedent is a tempest in a teapot and turns out to be some silly tech error, but the fact remains the potential for abuse remains until that flagging system is corrected.
I don't always see eye to eye with elitist pig but he does have the ability to cut to point, so if you disagree with me politicaly you can feel good about agreeing on this issue because Dave supports it.
7 - Victor Plenty
Is it censorship if you decline a KKK request to advertise their meetings with a big poster in the front window of your home? No, of course not. Freedom of the press means freedom to print what you want on your own press, at your own expense. It doesn't mean everybody else has the right to force you to print things you don't believe in.
Blogspot is Google's property. They allow many people freedom of expression there, but they are under no obligation to offer every view the same freedom. If they want to keep out the spammers, the pornographers, or the soccer fans, they are free to do so, and it will NOT be censorship.
Parents who limit their children's television viewing are also not engaging in censorship. That's just good responsible parenting. Censorship is done at the source. If you halt the broadcast, that's censorchip. If you change the channel or hit your OFF button, that is simply your freedom of choice.
8 - Dave Nalle
I agree that it's not censorship, but I think that it is a potentially very flawed and abusable mechanism for implementing content control. Of course the key is that becaus it's automated it costs them almost nothing - no staff required, almost no overhead. That's likely to be why they went with this approach to the issue.
Dave
9 - Victor Plenty
Blogger's explanation doesn't make it clear whether the flagging system is fully automated, or whether a heavily flagged blog will trigger a review by human eyes.
Of course I'd prefer they use human discretion to make such decisions, rather than relying only on the raw number of times a blog gets flagged. That could indeed lead to abuse, even if the result can't rightly be called censorship.
10 - Mr. Real Estate
The Blog Herald just ran a story on this. Link here
11 - uao
The flag button itself doesn't bother me so much. It doesn't do anything an email can't do.
I do worry about abuse of the button. I once had someone complain about my blog to a click-exchanger. I didn't know about it until the click exchanger admin emailed me saying "We checked out your blog after receiving a complaint but it looks OK to us, so you're rotating again"
I never did find out what the complaint was, but I do know there's nothing on my blog complaint-worthy. Some uptight person just didn't dig something I must've said. Or misunderstood it.
So if the flag is a tool by which uptight people tattle on each other, it'll be a problem, but I assume Google isn't going to bother arbitrating content disagreements; who's got the time?
If it is a means by which spammers and trojan-spreaders get weeded out, it doesn't bother me.
As for this guy's site disappearing and then reappearing again, it might be coincidence; I can't always get into my Blooger account either.
12 - Temple Stark
Google also had the concern that it archives everything in everyone's g-mail account and cross references it in a database for purposes not quite known.
I'm unclear on further details without a further look-see.
13 - Jason Goldman
The problems that Ashok experienced were in no way connected to the new Flag feature. His blog is once again publishing successfully.
And just to clarify, no blogs are being automatically blocked or prevented from publishing because of the Flag feature. I elaborated on this over on Blogger Buzz.
In short, we would never use this feature as a way to silence political discourse and opinion.
14 - DrPat
Okay, I'm awed. Does everyone realize just what a heavy mace one wields when one writes on BlogCritics?
15 - Al Barger
Well DrPat, we should be expecting to be considered at least somewhat influential opinion leaders. We're rapidly working our way toward a couple of million page views THIS MONTH. We have a significant audience.
16 - gypsyman
Tell me about it Dr. Pat. Well I guess you know the site is getting big when people start misquoting articles to make stories sexier. The above link to Blogherald that realestate guy has left leads to a story where stuff is taken out of context, and I'm miss quoted at least twice.
Considering the guy had the text to read from that's quite an astounding feat of journalism. I guess we all will have get used to this, and it means we all have to be extra careful in what we say and how.
17 - Matthew Robinson
I currently dislike the current manner in which the flag button on the navbar is used. The term "objectionable" is too subjective in this context. If the flag button were used to blog illegal activities (porn) or spam I'd have no problem with it. But it removes from the listings things that certain groups may find "objectionable". Until the way the flag button works and is implemented is changed I have made a personal boycott of the button. Click here to See. I want to help make Blogger and Blogspot a better place, but the current workings of the flag button do not seem it to me.
18 - Black Krishna
I posted this, and wonder: wouldn't it be ironic if this post is "flagged"?
I hope every blogger in the world posts their objections post-haste, and all those in favor of crazy schemes for controlling the internet, or "they", don't destroy the internet by turning us all into snitches.
I mean, if they turn us into snitches, we can't even blame them for censorship.
We're doing it. We're endorsing it. We're active participants.
They'll probably tell us what we decide without giving us raw data due to "privacy" concerns, and most people will stay ignorant anyway because the media won't want to mess with their own Google "search results". So, we'll happily chip away at our freedom with a perfectly democratic process of mob rule based on fear, as snitching comes back in style.
People accidentally finding crap on the internet hasn't resulted in any cited societal harm, and much like anything that shocks you for a second, it has little impact: people have survived "the holocaust", and parallel events going on today. They haven't cited any evidence - anecdotal or otherwise.
If you choose to continue checking the "sex-with-a-horse" blog then you are responsible your own actions. Having accidentally seen pics of the same, I can say that while it's "gross", it's certainly not scarring. Shutting down the window and opening up a new one hasn't left me with the shakes, and we shouldn't accomodate those who are sensitive with anything more than personal filters, like Google's "SafeSearch is On".
Illegal material is "illegal": prosecute it.
As for the rest: leave it alone.
We've seen the power of power to mobilize masses to attack Cindy Sheehan among others speaking truth to power, and anyone with a lower profile could easily get "flagged" through a coordinated effort and kicked out. People represent consumers, and corporations will respond to their complaints like boycott threats and their desire to avoid controversy. Losing our first principles and "First Amendment Rights" is a classically dangerous slippery slope, and since on their flag explanation "potentially offensive or illegal. Add "Internet 2" to the mix (again... just Google it), and it just shows "they" are taking it.
I guess we've had too much fun...
Peace, (NOW!!!)
BK
_________________
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Black Krishna Brand
Philosophy - blackkrishna.blogspot.com/
Music - www.soundclick.com/bands/0/blackkrishna.htm
...
19 - Jennifer
From what I can see, the flagging is working. It used to be that every other blog you visited with the navbar was spam. That doesn't seem to be the case now. And any blog with illegal activity (including spam) will be disabled, not just removed from the listings.
20 - Jennifer
From what I can see, the flagging is working. It used to be that every other blog you visited with the navbar was spam. That doesn't seem to be the case now. And any blog with illegal activity (including spam) will be disabled, not just removed from the listings.
21 - Natalie Davis
Interesting; lots of blogger sites (including my page, which isn't my main site and does not use a blogspot template) don't have the navbar at all. I assume it can be edited out of the template for those sites that do employ it.
22 - Secretgarden
I, too, have become more concerned with heavy censoring of blog sites, particlarly Conservative ones. Satirical comments are often targeted, either because the moderator didn't understand the reference or that the comment was in jest. What upsets me more is that entire threads are locked so that you can see the comments but you can't respond to them. It seems that people with personal axes to grind or racially thin skins patrol political blog sites i.e Free Republic, forcing bloggers to make flippant statements or bland remarks bowing to political correctness rather than risk censure.
Where can one blog about current events and politics and call it as we see them without zealous moderators dissecting and cancelling posts? I'm a conservative so when you hear a conservative griping about censoring you KNOW that site censorship has gone overboard.
23 - Natalie Davis
"forcing bloggers to make flippant statements"?
What? How are they FORCING anyone to say anything? Trolls bite, but you always have the option of not responding to them.
24 - Sheree
I am about to give up on blogger.com (blogspot?)
I can't login and have been trying for days now. No one there will address my issue, even though I have posted on the forums. Customer service is nill. Why bother. I also blog at Wordpress and Live Journal, and Bravenet, and CafeMom, and Shoutpost, and others. They never ignore me or CENSOR ME. You can see from my blog that someone might like to block access to yet more TRUTH TELLING. So, I can't login and post ANYTHING. I have two bloggers there. The other is WHY ORGANIC.
I feel as though I am being censored at blogger.com. do I have proof? Well, why don't they help me? Why don't they contact me and help?
Darn right we need to keep an eye on Google.
And we need to protect You Tube and My Space as well.
Scary times if you ask me.