Previous Politech message: "Gagged by Google? Body Shop founder protests blog ad deletion" http://www.politechbot.com/p-03598.html --- From: danbrekkeat_private To: declanat_private Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 11:58:55 -0700 Subject: Re: FC: Gagged by Google? Body Shop founder protests blog ad deletion Anita Roddick's site came up for me just now. The column below is a little behind the curve in that Roddick posted a "dispatch" a week ago that expresses disappointment with, but is highly conciliatory, toward Google. As far as the censorship issue goes, obviously advertising policies draw lines. But I wonder if Google means it when they say they won't take ads for politics-related content that's "anti-anything." That rules out virtually any news media or journal of commentary or anything else carrying the work of people who write seriously about issues. --- Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 11:44:17 -0700 From: lizard <lizardat_private> To: declanat_private CC: politechat_private, lauraat_private, sitkaat_private Subject: Re: FC: Gagged by Google? Body Shop founder protests blog ad deletion Hm. Will Roddick (or her company) be willing to sell my (theoretical) new line of bath soap, made from the fat of Spotted Owls and produced by enslaved Guatemalan children? No? She thinks she can control what is sold through her own business? Censorship! --- Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 14:43:44 -0400 From: "Paul Levy" <PLEVYat_private> To: <politechat_private>, <declanat_private> Cc: <sitkaat_private>, <lauraat_private> Subject: Re: FC: Gagged by Google? Body Shop founder protests blog ad deletion I don't agree with your analogy in point 2. Complaining is a way of bringing the pressure of public / consumer opinion to bear on Google's decisions about maintaining and enforcing the policy. Specific examples are usually much more effective than hypotheticals and generalities. Paul Alan Levy Public Citizen Litigation Group 1600 - 20th Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009 (202) 588-1000 http://www.citizen.org/litigation/litigation.html --- From: "Singleton, Norman" <Norman.Singletonat_private> To: declanat_private Subject: RE: Gagged by Google? Body Shop founder protests blog ad deletion Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 14:36:35 -0400 the peeved roddick begins to sound like Mitch McConnell on campaign finance -- so government censorship of political opinions doesn't bother this chap? Norman Kirk Singleton Legislative Director Congressman Ron Paul US House of Representatives --- Date: Sat, 01 Jun 2002 12:15:36 -0400 From: Nick Bretagna <onemugat_private> Reply-To: afn41391at_private To: declanat_private CC: lauraat_private, sitkaat_private, marsh6at_private, davidvestat_private, adwords-supportat_private Subject: Re: FC: Gagged by Google? Body Shop founder protests blog ad deletion regarding: <http://www.politechbot.com/p-03598.html>http://www.politechbot.com/p-03598.html As previously commented with regards the Bowman's Brigade issue some months back, I cannot say there is any rational basis for legal action with regards this sort of thing -- but I steadfastly reject the notion that it is their business to reject income which is not inherently offensive to a large segment of the population, and that only on the surface/up-front advertisement itself, not on deeper content. I have, ever since, consistently avoided Google, and I suggest that all people do the same until those at Google grasp that this sort of decisionmaking, tantamount to censorship, is unacceptable with regards their overall function. It's not merely shortsighted, Declan, it's reprehensible. There is a reason the Yellow Pages carry discrete ads and references for Adult Bookstores, Entertainment, and Massage Parlors in them, despite the fact that some would consider the very existence of such as offensive in itself. It is the clear and self-evident purpose of the YP to provide information about legal businesses in the area, not to provide or exercise comment on the moral aspects of their business. Likewise, it is the clear and self-evident purpose of a search engine to provide links to web pages, not to judge their content and deny those references to people who would be seeking them. Search engines are bad enough, with the dot-decom of Infind (far and away the best search engine I had ever used, and still orders of magnitude better than any of the remaining existing engines) without now having to concern myself with whether or not there are links I am missing because some coprolyte//// sorry "corporate" schmuck thinks they have some mandate to censor them. They are not a magazine or a web page -- that is not their function. If that was all they are, then such editorializing is within the bounds of propriety. They are, instead, a reference to internet content, and excluding some topics for reference -- exercising "editorial exception" -- is ludicrously counter-purpose. I suggest a boycott of Google is in not only in order, but way overdue, and I recommend this to all concerned, and you may quote me on that. -- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- Nicholas Bretagna II <mailto:afn41391at_private>mailto:afn41391at_private --- Date: Fri, 31 May 2002 22:16:45 +0100 From: Toby Inkster <tobyinkat_private> To: declanat_private Subject: Re: FC: Gagged by Google? Body Shop founder protests blog ad deletion On Fri, 31 May 2002 13:43:50 -0400 Declan McCullagh <declanat_private> wrote: DM> Roddick is the founder of the Body Shop, the notable DM> socially-responsible health-and-beauty store chain. The Body Shop hardly has a peachy clean record as far as social responsibility goes. I refer you to: http://www.mcspotlight.org/beyond/companies/bs_ref.html -- Toby A Inkster, Esq. ~ http://www.goddamn.co.uk/tobyink/ mailto:tobyink<at>goddamn.co.uk ~ gpg:0x5274FE5A jabber:tobyink<at>amessage.de ~ icq:6622880 ~ aim:inka80 ~ yahoo:tobyink ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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