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Somebody at Google said "hey, we could abuse our power for good!" and management came back saying "it's still abuse, so we're not doing it", and that was the end of it.

We can't be so sure, and it's generally unwise to consider only the company's word for this. But you have to read more news beyond this story to understand the debate over the issue. Ironically, you'd have to read stories that we're told aren't so easy to find if you depend on Google to bring them to your attention.

According to RT, one of the adversely affected parties:

Eric Schmidt, the Executive Chairman of Google's parent company Alphabet, says the company will "engineer" specific algorithms for RT and Sputnik to make their articles less prominent on the search engine's news delivery services.

"We are working on detecting and de-ranking those kinds of sites -- it's basically RT and Sputnik," Schmidt said during a Q & A session at the Halifax International Security Forum in Canada on Saturday, when asked about whether Google facilitates "Russian propaganda."

Google later wrote "a letter to Russia's media watchdog saying despite Eric Schmidt's recent comments about "de-ranking" RT and Sputnik, he referred only to "efforts to improve search quality." The company claimed it doesn't "re-rank" individual websites."

But RT isn't alone in this claim. RT also reports that other sites have experienced similar de-ranking.

It is not just Russian sites that Google is de-ranking either. The corporation which enjoys almost complete monopoly over the internet has already been criticized for censoring left-wing, anti-war websites like Alternet, Democracy Now, Truth-out.org, Counterpunch and Truthdig. Some of those websites have reported huge drops in traffic since changes were made to Google's search algorithms to combat "fake news". Nothing could demonstrate more clearly that Google is a cheerleader for American militarism and a loyal partner to war profiteers both in the arms industry and in Congress. Yet the corporation still enjoys a widespread reputation as a benign arbiter of truth.

Black Agenda Report has also raised this as an issue. This simply isn't as clear-cut as your summary would claim.

An article stressing that Democrats don't have a history of fighting for voting rights, aren't doing so now, and how the Democrats (and their media friends at CNN) are still peddling self-contradictory logic about the security of American elections (which are simultaneously strong enough to dismiss any criticism as "conspiracy theory" but weak enough to be interfered with by Russians).

You must be Russian. Only they and the Americans have such a lopsided perspective of World War 2.

You must not be letting facts interfere with your storyline. If millions of Russians hadn't died defending their country, just how much harder would it have been to take back the continent if the western allies had faced the full might of the German military? We're talking three times or more the Nazi military presence, if they hadn't been tied up with fighting the very Russians you despise.

Quick deflection though.. Did the Germans kill more Russians than Stalin and Lenin?

What does that do to change the fact that Russia did more to beat the Germans than all the other Allied forces combined? Jack and shit, and Jack left town.

In any case, are you sure you want to move the goalposts to domestic deaths in the USSR, most of which were due to famine. Why is it that communists are always 100% responsible for every death through famine - completely ignoring the impacts of of WWI, a drought, a civil war, not to mention a foriegn invasion. Yet, Capitalist Exceptionalists are never are responsible for any famines resulting from their policies. Irish Potato Famine, heard of it - the country had a food surplus throughout the blight, but much of their agricultural output was exported for British profit. There's plenty of other examples to choose from.

So, you're not objecting to the famine, you're objecting to the communism. A classic case of Western Exceptionalists only giving a flying fuck about human lives or human rights as long as it serves their politics and historical revisionism.

Obama has been worse than Bush in many, many ways. Democrats would have been flipping a shit over the NDAA but yawned and went back to bed when it was their guy signing it into law. Or ignored the War Powers Act and the Constitution to start a war in Libya without Congressional authorization. Or broke up OWS protests, complete with the FBI planning on using snipers on protest leaders "if necessary". Or....

And what has he done for the black community that even comes close to approaching the gifts he's given to the overwhelmingly white upper class? Electing an Uncle Tom does not prove that there is no institutional racism. The truth of the matter is that Obama's presidency is nothing more than a means of getting black people to support policies that harm black people.

To enlighten you, here's a few articles discussing just how little Obama has done for his most dedicated supporters.

And yes, there's the argument that he is the "president of all Americans, not just African Americans". Which is very true. But the right way to help Americans is to help those who need it the most.

Damn! You define the word "idiot"

I know you're just trolling, but what the hell:

You're goddamn right he would have. With Joe Lieberman (Dick Cheney's evil twin) elbowing him in the ribs, how would he avoid it? In fact the entire region would more likely be ashes if he won. I would love to know what has convinced your foolish ass otherwise... And just try to show when voting for the 'lesser evil' ever resulted in less evil.

I'm sure this is beyond your comprehension, but I'm putting it out for the convenience of the viewing audience, so that maybe they might understand that you're talking out your bung-hole.

Ever read Sinclair Lewis? http://blackagendareport.com/sites/www.blackagendareport.com/files/imagecache/feature400/illusion_of_choice.jpg

No prob. I DO think that Barack Obama hates Black folks, 'tho.: http://blackagendareport.com/content/why-barack-obama-more-effective-evil

Uh, no. The primary rifle used by militias in Africa is going to be the Kalashnikov because it's cheap, rugged, any idiot can use it, and it's light enough for a child to carry. Which is useful, of course, if you want to arm children. As you might guess from the name, the Kalashnikov is a Russian assault rifle that was sold off in vast quantities by Warsaw Pact countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The "civil war" is largely a creation of foreign and now AFRICOM interference.

http://webarchive.ssrc.org/Somalia_Hoehne_v10.pdf

"Thanks to half a century of pouring US arms stockpiles into Africa, the price of an assault rifle in Africa has for some time been cheaper than anyplace else on the planet."

http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/africom-americas-military-foot-africas-doorway

Somali "piracy" is the outcome of the illegal, exhaustive, industrialised over-fishing of Somali waters, by foreign fleets - leaving the coastal towns without any livelihood.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/johann-hari/you-are-being-lied-to-abo_b_155147.html

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/4/14/analysis_somalia_piracy_began_in_response

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1892376,00.html

The US manufactures foreign wars and "terrorists" the same way it used to lead in the creation of Automobiles and heavy manufacturing. But remember your Gibbon: The decline of Rome was seeded from its very rise on world's stage.

Sounds like you're referring to all the Black-American workers at the company I was at during the last presidential election.

They only watched Foxtard, so they truly believed Obama was a Muslim. After the election, they thought it was kool that America finally elected the first Muslim-American! And not a single one had ever read Glen Ford.

Gee, what could ever be wrong with the American voter?

But, unfortunately for the pseudo-dems, there are quite a few of us authentic democrats and progressives who plan to sit this election out, as we know that regardless of whom is elected, there will be plenty more "free trade" agreements in the future (something Obama has been pushing for lately). And there are plenty more of us authentic dems who can point to at least fifty of Obama's presidential appointments directly respponsible for the economic meltdown and the Long Depression. (Contrary to those faux crats, who claim ONLY the R-Cons were responsible for it.

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/freedom-rider-obama%E2%80%99s-supreme-court

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/obama%E2%80%99s-america-and-new-jim-crow

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/freedom-rider-obama%E2%80%99s-cia

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/freedom-rider-obama%E2%80%99s-supreme-court

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/obama%E2%80%99s-america-and-new-jim-crow

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/freedom-rider-obama%E2%80%99s-cia

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/freedom-rider-obama%E2%80%99s-supreme-court

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/obama%E2%80%99s-america-and-new-jim-crow

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/freedom-rider-obama%E2%80%99s-cia

Why do these Americans always have to complain about the problems with other countries democracies? It's not that theirs is so perfect. If you want to save the rest of the world than start with trying to get your troops home (also from Afganistan). A lot of these human right complains are masked military or economic conflicts or just plain US-aggressions. The US-government is full of criticism about human rights but refuses self-criticism. The US also has censorsip, political prisoners and torture. It has the highest number of prisoners in the world! Learn about the crimes of your own government. Start working on your own democracy.

China has killed the real number and per-capita difference in the US incarceration rate? Empiracal statistics, please!

>>> BTW, China adds insult to injury by charging the family of the prisoner who is executed a fine for the bullet that is used for the execution.

Reference, please? This was true of Iran, in the early revolutionary phase 79-81. I have heard this replicated, inaccurately, as a slur of many others since then.

From Slavery to Mass Incarceration, the Role of Prisons in American Society