FC: More on Gagged by Google, Body Shop founder, and blog ad deleted

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Sun Jun 02 2002 - 14:37:42 PDT

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    Previous Politech message:
    "Gagged by Google? Body Shop founder protests blog ad deletion"
    http://www.politechbot.com/p-03598.html
    
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    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
    
    
    
    
    
    
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