By Tim Collins

According to Google’s latest transparency report, more western governments are asking the search giant to remove political content from search results. The governments that are making the requests aren’t Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, or even China; these are Western governments.

On Monday Google released information on governments requests made from July to December of 2011.

“This is the fifth data set that we’ve released. And just like every other time before, we’ve been asked to take down political speech. It’s alarming not only because free expression is at risk, but because some of these requests come from countries you might not suspect – Western democracies not typically associated with censorship,” Google Senior Policy Analyst Dorothy Chou said in the company’s blog.

For instance, the Spanish Data Protection Authority wanted Google to remove 270 search results that linked to blogs and sites referencing individuals and public figures as well as three blogs and three YouTube videos. Google did not comply.

Canada’s passport office asked Google to remove a YouTube video of a Canadian citizen urinating on his passport and flushing it down the toilet. Google did not comply.

A local US law enforcement agency wanted Google to take down 1,400 YouTube videos for alleged harassment. The company refused. A separate request from another agency asked to remove five user accounts over alleged harassment and threats. Google terminated four of them, removing approximately 300 videos, but left the remaining account intact.

Also in the US, a court ordered Google to remove 218 search results that linked to allegedly defamatory websites. The company removed a quarter of the cited results.

The total number of governmental requests Google received jumped by 103 per cent over the six months, the company said. It complied with an average of 65 per cent of court orders, as opposed to 47 per cent of less formal requests.

Government censorship is certainly on the rise, especially in the United States where President Barack Obama is fighting for re-election. During campaign season, the truth can be very inconvenient. The truth can be considered slander.

Government censorship is nothing new, it’s been happening since the Roman Empire. The news media play a big role in government censorship, by choosing what to report and what to ignore. Fair and balanced simply doesn’t exist. In the age of the internet, the corporate media are struggling to remain relevant. They are losing ground to independent journalists who self fund their own websites. The propaganda machine is sputtering and they are grasping at straws when it comes to the new alternative press.

People still watch the corporate news, but the ratings are declining as younger audiences get their information from the alternative press.

One of the biggest threats to alternative media and its future as a viable and trustworthy news source comes from corporate media moles that are infiltrating it.

The Daily Caller is run by Tucker Carlson an exile from the MSM, yet instead of being different from the MSM, Carlson’s outfit walks right along with the corporate agenda.

Glenn Beck runs two different media sources, GBTV and The Blaze. As with the Daily Caller, Beck keeps the corporate propaganda running and only covers the stories that make Democrats look bad and make Republicans look good. When Beck left Fox News to start his own media company, many had high hopes. People thought that they would get to see Glenn Beck unplugged and really saying what’s on his mind. Instead, it has been a continuation of his time at Fox.

These news organizations often report very little on government censorship, unless it fits into their Conservative v. Liberal agenda.

The real alternative press is routinely hammered by the MSM and the MSM disguised as the alternative press.

Censorship of the web means total control by the corporate media and the end of the true alternative press. As governments have the ability to petition Google, sites like this run the risk of being omitted from search results.

Remember the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, know them so you can protect yourself from government tyranny.

Related articles

• Google reports ‘alarming’ rise in censorship by governments (guardian.co.uk)
• Google Reports Rise In Removal Requests (rferl.org)
• Google alarmed by rise in govt. censorship requests (panarmenian.net)
• EYE-BALL Opinion on – Google Report on Political Censorship (bleyzie.wordpress.com)