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[Ed note: This story was originally posted 2019-08-15 04:41 UTC but was lost when we had the site crash Thursday morning. Prior comments have, unfortunately, been lost. --martyb]
'Google Blocked TorrentFreak From Appearing in Search Feature'
Documents released by whistleblower Zachary Vorhies suggests that Google actively blocked hundreds of sites, including TorrentFreak, from its Google Now service. The blocklist doesn't provide a specific reason for the blockade, but other sites are flagged for having a high user block rate or for peddling hoax stories. Vorhies has shared the documents with the US Department of Justice.
At TorrentFreak, we have written hundreds of articles about website blocking and censorship. Today, we're featured in one ourselves.
Leaked Google documents reveal that TorrentFreak.com shows up in one of Google's previously unknown blocklists, which actively hides our domain from the Google Now service.
Google Now was a Google search feature that presented users with informational cards, to provide users with more details on subjects of interest to them. While the brand no longer exists, the feature is still present in the Google Android app and its feed.
The controversial blocklist is part of a treasure trove of files that were leaked by whistleblower Zachary Vorhies, who shared them with Project Veritas. The entire collection of files uncovers many previously unknown policies and actions from Google.
The story that broke SoylentNews™.
See also (Zachary Vorhies in the news): YouTube Software Engineer Describes Seeing Altercation In Building Courtyard
America's Greatest Makers is like American Idol for geeks, so we talked to one
Previously: Veritas Claims Leaked Internal E-Mails from Google Showing Political Bias of Results
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 16 2019, @04:16AM (14 children)
The way it works is they scream and yell and they figure most people don't have the time to dig in so they will assume where there is smoke there must be fire. They spent a decade doing it to Obama - all the birthers, the tan suit, the spicy mustard, inviting Common to the white house, Michelle's vegetable garden, they were relentless. They scream about everything in order to exhaust the reality-based community. [rationalwiki.org] The bullshit asymmetry principle [wikipedia.org] says it takes 10x more work to debunk their bullshit than it does to make up bullshit, they just hope to wear everybody down. The only way to win is to stop playing their game.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 16 2019, @04:30AM (3 children)
We literally have Eric Schmidt on tape vowing to do whatever he possibly can to help Queen Hillary win, and the Libtard Lie Brigade STILL wants to pretend that nothing suspicious is going on. Nopity nope! Just every single person who disagrees with Leftist Nazi Scum being kicked off social media! Total coincidence!
(Score: 2) by Coward, Anonymous on Friday August 16 2019, @04:40AM
Blah. If a person whom I don't know tells me "they'll do what they can", I expect nothing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 16 2019, @04:44AM (1 child)
According to Brad Parscale, Facebook literally embedded a team with the trump campaign. [cbsnews.com]
Nobody did that for Ds. But yeah you keep on screaming.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 16 2019, @06:03PM
They didn't have to.
(Score: 2) by Coward, Anonymous on Friday August 16 2019, @04:50AM (5 children)
Vorhies put his career on the line and can expect huge legal bills. I wouldn't say that action is 10x less than reading his docs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 16 2019, @05:13AM (4 children)
Eh, its james okeefe's work that was pretty shallow here.
Voorhies's own words are self-damning, he claims google sent the police to do a wellness check on him before he quit. That means they thought he was mentally incapacitated. I'm sure that's just the tip of the iceberg, we are probably going to find out that he's cognitively vulnerable and okeefe worked him - okeefe is quite clearly a sociopath. I mean FFS Voorhies is an anti-vaxxer and a pizzagate believer, he worked at youtube and he still drank the kool-aid. The chance that this guy was making rational, sane decisions is about nil. Fucking yourself because you are stupid and incompetent is not the same as working hard.
(Score: 2) by Coward, Anonymous on Friday August 16 2019, @05:48AM (1 child)
It's not unreasonable to mistrust the authorities. They lie all the time. Anti-vax sentiment is an unfortunate consequence of that, but not necessarily irrational.
Maybe schools should have a science project where kids vaccinate some mice and not others in a blinded study. They can expose them all to a pathogen and see what happens.
Trust is a delicate thing that society needs to nurture. Berating skeptics and calling them deranged won't help.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 16 2019, @01:57PM
Amplifying every nutjob who calls himself a "skeptic" is 1000x more damaging to trust than accurately calling deranged people deranged.
The right to spout bullshit is not a right to be taken seriously. Your choice to take every nutjob seriously is a learning disability itself.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Mer on Friday August 16 2019, @09:59AM (1 child)
the work culture at google is known to be sectarian and agressive towards non-conformity, not to sensibly advertise their ideas
maybe the guy started just as center right and got paranoid by working in a hostile environment
Shut up!, he explained.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 16 2019, @02:15PM
You say "known" as if its a fact. Haven't you figured out that the people who scream the loudest about being oppressed are really just wannabe oppressors unhappy that they've been thwarted? Its always projection.
"Look what you made me do!" [thenib.com] Bog-standard abuser projection.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 16 2019, @05:24AM (3 children)
And now we have Democrats doing the same. You think this is good? It's just as dumb as when the Republicans were doing it, only the Democrats pretended to be on the moral high ground.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 16 2019, @05:30AM (2 children)
Assertion unsupported by evidence. There is no democratic equivalent to the 200mph right wing rage machine.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 16 2019, @10:23AM (1 child)
This is true. Totally unsupported assertion of false equivalency! It's like saying that it's alright for Runaway1956 to have carnal knowledge of livestock, because Democrats do it, too! Without, of course, providing any evidence for any Democrat engaging in personal animal husbandry, while Runaway's predilections are well known and need no citation. And gawd forbid, no video!! Not again!!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 16 2019, @10:43AM
Just one State over, but the story is that when Lyndon Johnson was running for the US Senate, he told his campaign manager to accuse his opponent of being a pig-fucker. The manager said that it might be difficult to find evidence proving that, but LBJ said, "I don't care, I just want to hear the son-of-a-bitch deny it!" Runaway? The Pig is in your court, as they say.