IS GOOGLE ETHNIC CLEANSING THE INTERNET?

May 6, 2008 at 15:54 (Blogging, Censorship, DesertPeace Editorial, Internet, Internet Security, Palestine, zionist harassment)

Image ‘Copyleft’ by Carlos Latuff

In the past two days, the same number of pro-Palestinian Blogs were locked by Google…. accusing them of being Spam Blogs. They claim it is ‘Robots’ that are doing the dirty work…. I claim it is a very sophisticated, well organised cell of zionists at work.

Robots don’t log into Blogs randomly and read entries…. as Google has been doing on a number of occasions this week. Google’s Blogsite, Blogspot, also insisted late last year that users log in using a gmail.com account…. Does this mean they are also logging in to our private emails?

Sunday a Blog that is run by a young Arab Woman was locked. ArabWomanBlues @ Blogspot was just too much for Google to handle. Her beautiful daily selection of artwork was an eyesore to them….

Yesterday it was the turn of one of our resident journalists living in Gaza, Laila El-Haddad, A Mother From Gaza, also at Blogspot. Her writings about her beautiful children were also too much for Google to handle…. Palestinian children.

I don’t see Google censoring any right wing, white power or zionist blogs. Why is this? What are the anti zionists saying that Google is so afraid of? In February of 2006 Google opened an office in Israel. One really has to wonder if that office is actually the new Head Office of the Corporation.

The hypocrisy displayed by Google is unbelievable. Slightly over a year ago Blogger (Google) chose Laila’s Blog as being Noteworthy….

yesterday it was locked. If you go through her archived posts you will see that none of her content changed from then till now…. so why this new attitude on Google’s part?

Just who is Google? Click HERE to find out. More importantly is just what does Google own? For a listing of their holdings click HERE. BUT…. most importantly is what does Google NOT own…

The answer is simple…. YOUR MIND.

But only you can prevent them from taking that over as well. Don’t let them control your thoughts. Don’t let them control your Blog.

Mary of PeacePalestine wrote a brilliant piece the other day on Censorship. In it she has the following suggestions…

1) Back up all your material. I learned this the hard way, and if not for my faithful group of friends, I don’t know how I would have salvaged almost 4 years of material.

2) Create a mirror blog with a completely different provider. It takes moments to open a new blog, so register your name and convert your content. You never know when you may need it.

3) You CAN still work with your Blogger template, so leave a message for your readers that you have moved. I found this out weeks later, and in the meantime, many readers were disoriented. Two had done an international phone search (unsuccessfully) and in the end reached someone close to me to get the number, because they thought I was dead. Now how is THAT for readership loyalty!

4) If possible, go for private hosting options. This week, Haitham, Gilad and I are going to unveil our newest creation. Not that private hosts are failsafe, but they are certainly not going to be arbitrarily censored by the provider or those who the provider serves.

5) Build and maintain a network community. They will come to your aid when you need it, they will inform others of your tribulations. This means not only that you share readership and exchange tips and material, but you can depend upon them when push comes to shove. I have not been let down by these people, and their generosity and kindness is only equaled by their intelligence. Not only bloggers are part of the community, but commenters and readers.

6) Open a blog or site yourself. The more voices we have out there, the harder it will be to censor us all.

7) Defend the sites under attack, and don’t be afraid of not being “indexed” if you link to a good site. If and when Google dies, another site will come to replace it. There is an alternative to everything, but there is no alternative to the right of freedom of expression of an individual, of the unique character of his or her site, and that is what we MUST defend, in order to support the causes we care about.

As big and powerful as Google is, always remember that the mightiest weapon of all is the pen (in this case the keyboard)…. DON’T LET THEM TELL YOU WHAT TO WRITE. And more importantly is DON’T LET THEM SILENCE YOU.

I have said it before, I will say it again, ‘they can censor me but they can’t silence me’!

Make that your Mantra!