[ NNSquad ] Google blocking opinions with which it disagrees regarding "network neutrality?"

[Brett Glass <nnsquad@brettglass.com>]

    [ Since Brett is making an utterly erroneous suggestion in the
      message below, I feel it appropriate to preface some remarks
      to avoid further confusion.  I ordinarily wouldn't send such
      a message out at all, but it's already been seen in at least
      one other widely read venue to which Brett submitted it, and
      proper clarification is now important.
  
      1) Google uses (its own) automated algorithms to try detect and flag
         sites that may be involved in the distribution of malware.

      2) Like all such automated systems, the Google malware detection
         procedure is not 100% accurate and may on occasion tag pages that
         do not actually represent malware risk points.  However, it is not
         infrequently the case that site owners are serving malware
         contaminated pages or links to malware without their knowledge.

      3) Given (2), Harvard's Berkman center and their partners operate
         as an independent review point for anyone who feels that they
         have been inappropriately tagged by the Google malware detection
         system.  See:
         http://www.stopbadware.org/home/faq#partnerwarnings-involved for
         full details.

      4) To suggest that Google is purposely censoring network neutrality
         opinions with which it might disagree is ludicrous in the extreme.

        -- Lauren Weinstein
           NNSquad Moderator ]

 - - -


Everyone:

Google has been a strong supporter of the agenda of Free Press, an 
inside-the-Beltway lobbying group which has spent hundreds of 
thousands of dollars lobbying for regulation of the Internet under 
regime known as "network neutrality." While some of the tenets 
included in this agenda are not reasonable, one of those that IS 
reasonable is the notion that large corporations such as Comcast 
should not block content with which they disagree.

However, Google -- itself a large corporation -- appears to be 
blocking a site which expresses opinions with which it does not 
agree on this very issue. When one does a search for the terms 
"neutrality" and "site:pff.org" (the link

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=neutrality+site%3Apff.org&btnG=Google+Search

will perform this search for you), many of the pages and documents 
on the site -- in particular, white papers expressing views with 
which Google disagrees -- are tagged with a warning that "This site 
may harm your computer." One cannot click through to the documents 
and pages in Google's search results without cutting the URL from 
the page and manually pasting it into one's browser.

The Web site, operated by a group known as the "Progress and 
Freedom Foundation," does not appear to contain any malware. When 
one queries Google as to why the site was blacklisted, it claims 
that "Part of this site was listed for suspicious activity 1 
time(s) over the past 90 days." Yet, we could find no malware or 
other exploits in the blacklisted PDF files, some of which contain 
very well presented and cogent arguments against the agenda which 
Google has been actively supporting.

Could it be that Google is using its search engine clout to 
suppress opposing viewpoints?

--Brett Glass