Action Alert: Google the Censor

On January 12, 2007 Google has stopped indexing Uruknet.info as a news source

Uruknet is a not-for-profit online news outlet publishing news and analysis coming from a wide range of sources: mainstream and alternative media, analysts, academics, bloggers, independent writers, etc. Its main focus is occupied Iraq.

Alexa, the web-ranking organization, reports that Uruknet is "the most visited site in all 'News and Media' categories" relatively to the Iraq conflict.

Why did Google remove Uruknet from Google News? Uruknet has asked Google this question several times but Google has refused to answer it. I have written to Google too and this is my correspondence with them:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am a journalist based in London, UK and I will be writing about the following story where Google seems to have taken a very illiberal step toward a very well known news website:

http://uruknet.info/?p=m29907&hd=&size=1&l=e

Please, could you let me know your point of view? Why did you have banned from Google and Google News a news website that you had included for many years?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you.

Kind regards,
Gabriele Zamparini
http://thecatsdream.com

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Hi Gabriele

Thanks for your email about Google News. While we can't go into the specifics of individual websites, I thought it might be helpful to provide some general background information about our criteria for inclusion in Google News. As you know, we periodically review our index of news sources and have at times removed sources that do not meet our criteria.

News sources included in the service must be from news organisations, which are selected without regard to political viewpoint or ideology. We determine which sites qualify as news organizations by using such criteria as whether the source offers information that is updated regularly; if it is managed by an organization (not an individual) and includes organizational information on its site; and whether the source's website is technically conducive to inclusion. Sources must also not include hate speech or pornography.

The technical requirements for inclusion in Google News are the same as inclusion in Google's general index. Websites use a widely accepted Internet standard called robots.txt to "tell" search engines like Google whether or not they are allowed to crawl their site. If a site uses robots.txt to block Google's crawler, or if it uses content that is difficult for our search engine to crawl, then we don't crawl the site. In addition, other technical reasons – such as when sites use dynamic content – make it difficult for our search engine to crawl, and can also lead to exclusion from Google News.

I hope this is helpful!

Best wishes
Oliver

--
Oliver Rickman
Google Corporate Communications
+44 (0)20 7184 3353

Google UK, Belgrave House, 76 Buckingham Palace Rd, London, SW1W 9TQ

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RE: http://uruknet.info/?p=m29907&hd=&size=1&l=e


Thanks Oliver.

I read with attention your e-mail and still can’t understand why Google decided to remove Uruknet from Google and Google News. From what you write I can’t see any reasonable reason for this decision and having Google a predominant position on the Internet, I believe Google should take this matter in much more serious consideration and try to justify its decision or to step back from this inept attempt to suppress freedom of speech. Censorship on the Internet is not a new phenomenon and I have read it is not the first time Google is accused of it.

I CC this email to a few people that may be interested in following this serious and worrying matter. Here what’s at stake is not just the right of Uruknet to be included in Google and Google News but the freedom of speech itself and the attempt by Google to suppress it.

Thank you again for your email and please I look forward for Google reply about this case.

Kind regards,
Gabriele Zamparini

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Hi Gabriele
Thanks for your reply. As I said before, we don't comment on an individual news site's removal from Google News, but there are numerous criteria that we apply to determine whether a site should be included or removed.
However, I'd like to clarify that we have not removed Uruknet from Google Web Search. If you visit www.google.co.uk and search for "uruknet" the website uruknet.info appears as the top result.
Best wishes
Oliver

***

Thanks Oliver.

While I can understand that your internal policy is that you “don't comment on an individual news site's removal from Google News”, this is exactly the point I would like to raise. From what I read and I can understand, it seems that your “criteria” are quite subjective and, at the end, arbitrary. Since Google has a de facto monopoly or quasi-monopoly on the realm of the Internet, its arbitrary policy represents an unacceptable form of censorship. Google’s unwillingness to discuss openly the reason of its inclusion/esclusion from the Internet adds more reasons to be worried. Even though Google is a private corporation, this doesn’t mean that it is above law and ethical principles such as freedom of speech and transparence. Once again I reiterate my request: Why has Google excluded from Google News a news website that had been on Google news for the past few years, that is used by many mainstream and alternative media journalists and by thousands of Internet users around the world? A website that is classified by Alexa, the web-ranking organization - http://www.alexa.com/browse?&CategoryID=79506 - as "Most popular" No. 1 in [Iraq] "News and media"?

Thank you once again for your reply and I look forward to hearing from Google soon.

Kind regards,
Gabriele Zamparini

This is not the first time Google removes Uruknet from Google News. In February 2005 and again in June 2005 Google did the same, only to step back and re-including Uruknet after many readers complained with Google.

The famous quote used to summarize Voltaire's thought, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it", is the essence of what we call Freedom of Speech. The enemies of this freedom have always been numerous and powerful and it's up to us to defend this freedom against its enemies, the old and the new ones.

SUGGESTED ACTION

Please, write to Google and make your voice heard. I strongly urge readers to maintain a polite, non-aggressive and non-abusive tone.

press@google.com
news-feedback@google.com
source-suggestions@google.com

You may also write to National Coalition Against Censorship and Electronic Frontier Foundation asking for their help in this matter.

UPDATE - SOME REPLIES FROM READERS:

As an admirer and early (and continuing) user of Google, I am deeply disturbed by the news that you have removed Uruknet from Google News. this is, as noted in a communication to your offices by Gabriele Zamperini, "A website that is classified by Alexa, the web-ranking organization - http://www.alexa.com/browse?&CategoryID=79506 - as "Most popular" No. 1 in [Iraq] "News and media"?"

I lost a family member in the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11. The unconscionable manner in which the US high administration continually links their four years' adventure in Iraq to 9/11 makes what ACTUALLY happens in Iraq of utmost importance to me and to many other sentient beings here in the US and abroad. At London School of Economics, while studying for my MSc in Politics of the World Economy, I learned that the only sure way to figure out what is going on in the world is to read as much as one can, and from all angles.

To deprive the public of the resource provided by Uruknet is to curtail our understanding of an importnat part of the world and leave us at the mercy of willful and dishonest leaders.

Please restore this site to your news mix.

Valerie Lucznikowska
New York City

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What not explain why Uruknet was delisted from Google News?
When Google arrogantly replies "it is not our policy to explain" you make an excellent case for government regulation. Free speech is too important - and too public- a concern to depend on the whims of any corporation.

Joe Emersberger