Admission of Guilt

Google Admits Censorship Under Biden; Promises to End Bans of YouTube Accounts of Thousands of Americans Censored for Political Speech [More]

Yeah, well I’ll believe change is real when I see it:

Speaking from personal experience, Google’s censorship of documented reporting is why I was compelled to remove my The War on Guns blog from Blogger and seek out new digs. And I’ve been documenting for some time the dwindling number of hits from Google’s modified algorithm, to where none of my AmmoLand articles, which used to be prioritized, appear on the first page of a search on the “News” tab. And that’s despite much diligent behind-the-scenes work on optimizing SEO visibility.

And even though I have a lot more exposure now, I don’t get anywhere near the site visits here that I did on the old blog.

Who Will Help Them Bake the Bread?

The effect isn’t abstract. Traffic drives revenue, and revenue keeps independent media alive, paying your favorite writers, editors, and keeping the “lights on”. Without it, the field is left to large, anti-gun news organizations funded by their mega-millionaire owners [can you say Bloomberg] that already dominate the conversation. [More]

I’ve told you about this before.

Who gets value from it?

A Bit Late on That Alert

I signed up for emails to help keep track of how my work is spreading.

Being told of articles from 10 years ago is hardly helpful. Then again, it’s all in the algorithm.

Anyway, “mystery” eventually solved:

Ranger John Woychowski… said he left the gun, a .40-caliber Sig Sauer P239 that served as his secondary duty weapon, in a holster inside a backpack stashed under the front seat of his SUV parked on The Embarcadero near Pier 5 while the family went to dinner. The backpack also contained his badge and law enforcement credentials.

In fairness, he did talk to a meter maid…

All in the Algorithm

White supremacists. This ain’t me just telling you, you can Google this if you don’t believe me, but it was the Oath Keepers. [More]

I won’t speak for racist collectivists fraudulently portrayed as “right wing,” but can document this with certainty about Oath Keepers:

Section 8.02. Restrictions on Membership… (b) No person who advocates, or has been or is a member, or associated with, any organization, formal or informal, that advocates discrimination, violence, or hatred toward any person based upon their race, nationality, creed, or color, shall be entitled to be a member or associate member.

So if that’s the conclusion Google is leading people to, that’s libelous. That and Crockett is a racist voted for by stupid people.

It’s All in the Algorithm

Last week, MRC researchers found that Google buried US-based right-leaning news outlets on the 14th page of search results. It appears that the tech giant is still at it, as it continues to hide right-leaning outlets in the depths of search results. [More]

Speaking from personal experience you have to go to page 5 of my “News” tab results to find anything of mine from AmmoLand, meaning no one ever will. I’m sure letting my Firearms News stuff appear is just an oversight, especially after seeing what Facebook just pulled.

[Via Michael G]

SEO Irregular

While looking for a link to my Points question, I noticed something again today I’ve been meaning to mention for a while: Type in “Sipsey Street Irregulars” on Google and the first link that comes up goes to an SPLC post about it closing down after Mike’s death.

That means either algorithm ranking results have been manipulated to make one post outweigh Mike’s life work, or the majority of Mike’s readers didn’t regularly help him promote his work by sharing links. Noting how many of his thousands of readers didn’t step up when asked to, I’d be hard pressed to pick a reason.

Noting the importance of that work — and the way it’s now being misapplied exactly as he warned against — either reason, censorship from without or apathy from within, is one hell of a demotivator.

Gemini Rising

Google Gemini invented fake reviews smearing my book about Big Tech’s political biases – Google Gemini invented fake reviews meant to discredit my book about political bias in Big Tech [More]

That goes beyond GIGO and into hallucination and libel territory.

Then again, I was checking to see how the work was propagating and ran across “Meet Preston,” and he doesn’t seem to have me embezzling checks from anybody…

Brought to You By…

I’m trying to figure out if it’s my cookies and browser history causing this or the subject matter of the videos I’m trying to access, but more and more every time I try to watch a gun influencer on YouTube, Mark Barden’s showing up first. Is this happening to any of you?

As with Manuel Oliver, as sympathetic as we may feel, his “solution” is antithetical to freedom and unacceptable, and his loss does not give him a claim against our rights.

Starting off the video with these ads undermines the presenter’s work, especially with people who may not be informed and may be otherwise receptive. So I have some questions, because I don’t know how YouTube ad policies work.

Is it intentional placement? Does the client request it? Does the YouTube account where the ad is being placed have any say? If so, do they allow it because monetization is monetization? If not, could they reject it?

Conversely, would a “gun rights” group be able to have their ads placed at the start of gungrab group videos? Has anbody ever seen that happen?

And is this a directed policy by Google/YouTube to deliberately muddle messages they want to suppress, and inject their own?

[Video link submitted via Jess]

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