In 2018, a document called 'The Good Censor' was leaked from Google to author Allum Bokhari. It was an admission that Google intended to "shift toward censorship". The document was leaked at the same time that the MSM was accusing President Trump of believing "conspiracy theories" about Google's political censorship.

'The Good Censor' advised that the days of Silicon Valley and Big Tech believing in "unfettered" free speech were over. Big Tech firms (Google, Facebook, Twitter) were shifting away from unmediated speech and going towards censorship, the document revealed.

These companies now control most online communications, which gives them the "opportunity to reshape the internet according to their values".

The recommendation is for the "European tradition" that "favours DIGNITY OVER LIBERTY and CIVILITY OVER FREEDOM". The authors of the document prefer the "MORE AUTHORITARIAN (they are not too shy to use that word) European deal". They do have the grace to admit that "this represents a 'sharp departure' from what tech platforms initially promised their consumers".

A.B writes that all it took for Silicon valley to abandon its belief in free speech were "a few cases of offensive content on the internet, some ineffectual Russian Trolls, and a political party its leaders don't like".

And of course, 'The Good Censor' pays homage to its advertising revenue from virtue-signalling Big Business, which also thinks that it's their job to gag people they consider to be not the right sort.

Even some Google employees are opting for optional browsers and search engines.

Allum Bokhari believes that Google is the greatest threat to populism we have ever faced; the greatest threat to democracy we have ever faced, and it is "the world's most dangerous company".

(Source - 'Deleted: Big Tech's Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal the Election'' by Allum Bokhari)

I think you need to be forward thinking with this subject.
I prefer to take the line that defaults to a time past when google didn’t exist.
In historic terms very recently.

There once was a time when television was taken seriously. That time has long gone.
If google wishes to take a partisan stand, straight off they divorce half the population, and erode public trust. I see no long term win in that stand.

Google now goes into the basket with China, for trust and reliability.

Dan

diver,
Do you think they should treat truth and lies the same?
If not, what do you think they should do about it?

And if you do think they should treat truth and lies the same, what, if anything, do you think they should do about the resulting problems? Or do you deny those problems exist?

All busy whining about the Murdoch press, but less interested in the real damage that Big Tech can do. Baa .... Baa.

No, ttbn, it's four years sense we came aware of the damage big tech could do.
But as yet there's no consensus on what to do about it.

Well, Aidan, we could stop using the internet I suppose. But, what about different search engines? It is said that some Google employees, horrified by their employer's actions, use Yahoo and some others that I have never heard of.

I have a side piece on this subject. The original draft of my post has disappeared from Google Docs on both my tablet and laptop. Spooks? Google? Black magic?

The book that I referred to claims that Google reads our emails and just about everything we do on line. I don't know how true this is, of course, but it's not a nice thought. We might think that they wouldn't be interested in us ordinary plebs, but we don't know. Even if we are below the interest of the high poohbahs, lowly employees can do a lot of malicious damage, it seems.

Aidan.

*... Do you think they should treat truth and lies the same...*

We are not conflating truth and lies here, with censorship.
It’s a question of morality.

Morally speaking, it’s a google owned platform which they may control in their own way, if inside the law, (whatever law that may belong to.

If Google as an enterprise, have a desire to back a certain horse in a race, why is that wrong?

The question for us becomes, what if we as an individual don’t back the same horse, what action should we take?

Dan

It's not a matter of Google or any other influencer backing whatever whatever horse they like. It's the information they present - or suppress - to internet searchers. A couple of examples:

YouTube videos on Senator Maxine Waters are all from "verified" channels like NBC, CNN, C-SPAN, PBS, MSNBC - all Left wing sources. You might find something not supporting Waters' extremism in the deep depths of you live long enough to keep looking.

There are 'blacklists' on certain subjects. This is not blacklisting in the usual sense (banning). But one side is predominant. Abortion is one such topic. After a SINGLE Leftist, pro-abortion journalist made a fuss about anti-abortion entries, entries are now principally pro-abortion. There might be anti entries, but few people would have the patience to keep looking.

An organisation controlling 92% of the internet, with no oversight, is controlling what sort of information is presented.

True. But Murdoch press were very quick to change horses mid race and join the church choir with anti-Trump dialogue .

Nothing can be trusted. That is the world in which we live.
And ever increasingly, nobody will be trusted, politicians downward.
So what is different with google?

The world is awash with polished liars. And liars seed the lie with some truth for effect.
Since google hold the monopoly over access to both, that puts google In a leading position to distort truth.

But isn’t that the ageless Philosophical question: What is truth?

And today, over on another thread, poor old Al B bangs away blindly down the wrong burrow searching for truth and honesty in Biden. Those sort of misguided poor souls are fooled with a lie.
But then there is us. We are astute enough to recognise the baits laid in discreet places like google. And there is the answer.
Buyer beware!

Dan

Pretty good summary Dan.

Yes Google does seem to be the most dangerous tech company on the planet.

Hollywood is also pretty dangerous.

Trump should have done more to constrain them.

It's going to be a pretty dangerous world.

Thanks ttbn for the thread and Diver Dan for the comments.