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Google Relists Operation Clambake

Posted by timothy on from the squeaky-wheels dept.

DarkZero writes: "After almost every tech site and individual geek banded together to either carry the story about Google's delisting of Operation Clambake or flat-out protest it, Google has apparently relisted Xenu.net. Searches for 'xenu' and 'scientology' list Operation Clambake as the first and fourth results, respectively. The search for "scientology" also lists a story from C|Net about Google delisting Operation Clambake, as well as a protest ad from a Kuro5hin reader (oc3)." Update: 03/22 12:52 GMT by M : We jumped the gun. Google only relisted Xenu.net's homepage (where the copyright claims by Scientology were clearly bogus), not the rest of the pages listed in Scientology's DMCA complaint. Some Google sysadmin is getting aggravated because every 20 minutes, another memo from management is coming down telling him to alter the live database.

16 of 472 comments (clear)

  1. Frightening by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That a marginal religion such as Scientology could wield such massive power is truly a frightening concept.

    This without having any serious followers in governmental leadership positions.

  2. Not only that ... by Constant · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There's also following "sponsored link" appearing highlighted in nice green, when looking for the word "scientology": "Scientologist are Evil? Why is Google censoring this site? What are the Scientologist hiding? www.xenu.net:" Comes up only on some of the searches, though - so you need to click few times to get it. So, Xenu.net gets even better covarage then before Scientology started to fight it. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot .. :-) The only thing I'm waiting now for - an official statement and explanation from Google on today's turbulent events.

  3. Scientology and Southpark by CathedralRulz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Scientology is a complete fraud, but an interesting fraud. I would encourage anyone even marginally curious to take a look at the explanation of the cult on xenu.net. The Scientologists had an interesting conflict with the creators of Southpark. In a skit for the MTV Music Awards show, the South Park creators lambast Scientology and were threatened with lawsuits - yet they didn't back down. Here is the link to a description of the skit. Here. Southpark also tore into scientology in a spoof on them and street magician David Blaine. HOWEVER - note that the fellow who plays Chef does not appear in this episode - for he, Isaac Hayes, is a scientologist. Watch the episode here.

  4. Google should just sensor the keyword instead? by ClarkEvans · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Perhaps a search on "scientology" should return a message like: Due to threatened lawsuits via the DMCA and to deal with all parties in an even-handed manner Google has removed all searches with the keyword "scientology".

    1. Re:Google should just sensor the keyword instead? by kcbrown · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Oh, I think Google could make their point much more effectively than that.

      Think about it: Google is the premier search engine of the net these days. They're the search engine behind a number of big sites, like Yahoo and Earthlink. That's quite a bit of power that they wield.

      So when the CoS wants to play hardball with the DMCA as a club, the guys at Google could say "sure, we'll be happy to comply with your request to remove links and cache entries that point to that material. Of course, we'll also have to remove all of our links and cache entries for your sites and any pages that happen to refer to your organization in a positive light, just to be sure. Can't be too careful, you know". Of course, they'll leave the links and cache entries pointing to pages and sites that are anti-CoS up. And also put up the message that you mention as an explanation that the search isn't the completely objective thing that people are looking for, and why.

      And suddenly, the CoS becomes a non-presence on the net.

      And Google could give the same treatment to anyone who threatens them.

      Unfair, you say? Well, Google is a privately owned company and the resources that are used to cache this stuff are theirs to manage as they see fit, right?

      Lesson: don't screw with a powerful entity that wishes to remain objective. They might decide to not be objective about you anymore, and you might not like that at all.

      --
      Use 'slashdot stuff' in the subject line in any email you send me if you want to get past the spam filter.
  5. And the slashdot comments? by Perdo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So, Slashdot is making money now right? So repost the comments you were forced to remove. Let them litigate on two fronts.

    --

    If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.

  6. Oh this ad idea is fun! by JoeShmoe · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I saw the Xenu ad when I was reading the previous story and I thought "wow, that's really clever!"...here's why:

    Separation of editors and advertisers. Sometimes it's almost as strong as separation of church and state (although like church/state it's not absolute). In fact, a lot of sites pride themselves on the fact that editors can air stories even if it pisses off advertisers.

    Well why the hell not have it work in the other direction? Why not use advertising to bypass editorial waffling or censorship?

    Look at it this way. Let's say we all chipped in $5 each to create a fund to ensure that Xenu.Net showed up for every even-remotely related Scientology link (ie, Scientology, Travola, Dianetics, Bukkake, etc). Now, does Scientology have the legal right to tell Google they can't run those ads (thus depriving Google of its income). Couldn't Google argue that pulling ads that have been paid for would damage its business?

    What about extending the principle to other sites like Yahoo, or heck the NY Times. The way I see it, all Scientology could do is threaten to boycott Google/Yahoo/NY Times...they routinely ignore boycotts from groups all the time. Or they could pay to run ads countering the Xenu ads.

    Well of course I don't know for sure if things would be this simple but...you know, why can't we geeks take a page from the Corporate Dirty Playbook...fight with advertising.

    I'm all for giving money to the EFF but I think I would almost rather spend my money creating an ad campaign...along the lines of TheTruth ads you see against the tobacco industry. I mean, even smokers curse Big Tobacco out the side of their mouth as they buy another pack. The Tobacco Industry has a PR nightmare...so why can't Disney or Scientology or the MPAA or RIAA?

    I've got $20 right here I'll pitch in.

    - JoeShmoe

    .

    --
    -- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
  7. Let's get Xenu to #1 on Google listings ... by dustpuppy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    is it possible?

    If everyone who has a webpage creates a link to xenu.net then won't that boost Xenu.com's ranking on Google? Then if someone searches for Scientology Xenu would appear first ....

  8. Re:Go Google! by zinjifar · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Let's see if Slashdot believes in 'freedom to link' :)

    Here is an image that is absolutely irreplaceable in criticizing 'Scientology' and I'll include the commentary here...

    David Miscavige - otherwise available in his guise as a poodle at http://laugh.at/scientology - leading his acolytes up the 'Escalator to Total Freedom'.

    http://members.tripod.com/zinjifar0/esc01.jpg

    Somehow, I suspect Slashdot will hear about this link :) (even if it *isn't* html)

    Zinj

  9. The fact about scientology by q-soe · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The fact is that google are one of the few if only companies willing to stand up to the COS, they have deep pockets and lots of lawyers and they throw lawsuits around like confetti.

    I encourage everyone to read the Clambake Site and the linked documents, and i would reccomend the books linked from it - Particularly the following

    A piece of blus sky - subject of a massive lawsuit - the inside story of the church written by a former scienologist himself.
    L Ron Hubbard - Messiah or madman - learn the truth about the nutcase named ron

    Theres many more and i encourage you to read them.

    This is a church that robs its clients, asttempted to take over the british mental health system, pretty much took over the town of Clearwater, performs feudal punishments for transgressions,may have been involved in a number of murders, were caught systematically spying on the US govt including breaking into the IRS and copying court documents and much more. (read about the Sea Org, their very own navy)

    they dont play games and they harrass people who go against them in ways you cannot even imagine and they have billions of dollars in money and assetts.

    Read about them and learn the truth but be very carefull, these guys are very serious customers.

    --
    I refuse to argue with Anonymous Cowards - if you want a discussion get an account....
  10. How to Fight Scientology by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The Scientology cult has made systematic attempts at removing any links to negative websites -- both by creating a large collection of interlinked websites of their own (thereby raising their own propaganda sites in the rankings), and when that wasn't sufficient -- legal threats.

    Slashdot participants are in a unique position here to turn the tables on the cult by adding a link to http://www.xenu.net to all the websites we run. If enough of us link to www.xenu.net, we can make it the #1 resource for information about Scientology! (remember that Google's cache uses the number of referring websites to determine the ranking of listings in search results).

    Alex Berkman

  11. Scientology and The Daily Show by gad_zuki! · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Last years's Diary of A Daily Show Writer on slate revealed this about TDS under a list of jokes they don't do:
    5. Jokes that could start a lawsuit. Everyday, a script of the show goes to our legal adviser to be OK'd before the taping. Decisions are made on a case-by-case basis, but we all know to avoid certain areas. For instance, the Church of Scientology is not the subject of jokes on The Daily Show. And The Daily Show does not put beloved children's characters into adult situations. You get the idea. Also, when working off a sound bite, no matter how mean the man-on-the-street sounds, we can't follow him up by saying something like, "This man then left to check on the body in his trunk."


    They're brave enough to mock anyone in power and put total strangers on the spot, but the CoS is just too risky.
  12. Nope by Convergence · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Don't forget.. Scientiology fought against the IRS in teh 80's... AND WON!

    Anyone who can fight against the IRS and win is something that *only* a large gov't wants to tackle with.

  13. Re:Nope by q-soe · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Actually they eventually lost and had many of their senior members including hubbards wife sent to jail, you see the way they were winning was using spies to break into and copy the IRS's documents and give them to them, they also did the same thing against the justice department and other departments.

    Some religion hey?

    --
    I refuse to argue with Anonymous Cowards - if you want a discussion get an account....
  14. A good first step but... by Bartmoss · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...I think Google should counter-file. This would be in their best interest: They really should be considered a library, or a common carrier. Otherwise, Google just admit that they are responsible for any site they index and cache. And this is probably not what they want. IANAL of course.

  15. Re:Scientology = a bunch of wackos by FurryFeet · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is probably the movie you saw.