First Amendment Protects Censorship by Search Engines: Manhattan Judge

Search engines’ license to censor Internet, protecting vast commercial interests and political influence, makes NSA snooping look like Candy Crush

“The First Amendment protects Baidu’s right to advocate for systems of government other than democracy [in China or the U.S.] just as surely as it protects plaintiffs’ rights to advocate for democracy.”

U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman sitting in Manhattan (!) has dismissed a lawsuit against Baidu, the Chinese Internet Goliath, which the plaintiff, a group of pro-democracy activists, argued suppresses political speech on China’s most widely used search engine.

The plaintiff, eight New York writers and video producers, had argued that Baidu search engine algorithms, created at the behest of Chinese government, blocks users in the United States from viewing articles, videos and other information critical of  China’s suppression of democracy.

What the judge conveniently ignores in his judgment is the monopoly power of a major search engine over the flow of information.

Add this license for Internet censorship to Google’s near monopoly over the flow of information in the U.S. and much of the world,  and multiply the result by their efforts to protect their vast commercial interests and political influence …

Google and a handful of other Internet Goliaths bend the truth like black holes do light.

[Baidu is the fifth-most trafficked site in the world with more than 500 million regular users in China and a growing following in the US, topped only by  Yahoo, Google’s YouTube, Facebook and Google, according to an Internet traffic monitor. Editor.]

Related Links

• Google Gagged
• Eric Schmidt you’re a LIAR!
• Google Caught Spying, Lying, Again! November 8, 2013

Search this site for other posts on Google, where the entries have not been hacked!

 

Louisiana Sinkhole Swallows Up Trees

Tall trees sinking into underwater cavern at Bayou Corne, Louisiana

Footage shows tall trees sinking into underwater cavern at Bayou Corne in Louisiana. The phenomenon is being caused by the gradual collapse of an underground salt cavern that has put the whole area on alert. It is being closely monitored by emergency authorities, who took the video while carrying out work to try and stop its spread (!!)

Related Links

• What Florida Might Look Like in 2014 Posted by EDRO on December 7, 2009
• Drying Aquifers, Sinking Cities Posted by EDRO on February 5, 2008

Today’s Other Headlines

Typhoon Trami affects 360,000 in central China

• Typhoon Trami, the 12th typhoon to strike China this year, has affected 361,000 people in central China’s Hunan, leaving  30,900 were displaced. The typhoon brought rainstorms mainly to the southeastern and eastern parts of Hunan, with the largest rainfall of 281.6mm. The rains wreaked havoc in 14 counties, cities and districts, damaging 13,350 hectares of crops and toppling 150 houses, said the report.

NSA paid millions to Internet companies to cover mass surveillance costs

• The National Security Agency paid millions of dollars to cover the costs of major internet companies including Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook…

Materials implicating Syrian govt in chemical attack prepared before incident – Russia

• Materials implicating the Syrian government forces in chemical weapons use near Damascus were prepared prior to the alleged incident on August 21, the Russian foreign ministry has said.
• “Moscow continues to monitor closely the event surrounding the ‘alleged’ chemical attack near Damascus, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Aleksandr Lukashevich, said in a statement.”
• “We’re getting more new evidence that this criminal act was of a provocative nature,” he stressed. “In particular, there are reports circulating on the Internet, in particular that the materials of the incident and accusations against government troops had been posted for several hours before the so-called attack. Thus, it was a pre-planned action.”

43 killed, 86 wounded in attacks in Iraq

• At least 43 people were killed and 86 others wounded in attacks, including suicide bombings, across Iraq on Friday, amid growing tensions.

42 killed, more than 500 wounded  in twin explosions in Tripoli, Lebanon

• Two simultaneous explosions rocked the Lebanese city of Tripoli, killing at least 42 people and wounding 358 others.

• Red Cross put the number of killed and injured at 29 and 500, respectively.