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Russia To Act Against Google if Sputnik, RT Get Lower Search Rankings (reuters.com)
Paresh Dave and Jack Stubbs, reporting for Reuters: The Kremlin will take action against Alphabet's Google if articles from Russian news websites Sputnik and Russia Today are placed lower in search results, the Interfax news service cited Russia's chief media regulator as saying on Tuesday. Alexander Zharov, head of media regulator Roskomnadzor, said his agency sent a letter to Google on Tuesday requesting clarification on comments Saturday by Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt about how the Russian websites would be treated in search, according to Interfax. "We will receive an answer and understand what to do next," Interfax quoted Zharov as saying. "We hope our opinion will be heard, and we won't have to resort to more serious" retaliatory measures.
Is this a new SEO technique? "Note to self: Ask the government to help me increase my page ranking"
That was the turning point of my life--I went from negative zero to positive zero.
The moment they started manually messing with search rankings in order to appease people they fucked up.
They should have their algorithm and let the chips fall where they may.
That way no one can accuse you of favoritism or whatever.
I'm getting pretty tired of the whole "Russia narrative" that we get subjected to here at Slashdot again and again and again and again.
A Slashdot search for "russia" and a Slashdot search for "linux" both have Thursday October 19, 2017 as the date of the earliest submission listed on the first page of results.
So we get subjected to a submission about Russia just about as often as we get to read something about Linux!
It gets worse when we do a Slashdot search for "programming". The earliest submission on the first page of results if from Saturday October 14, 2017!
So we get subjected to noticeably more Russia submissions than programming submissions.
And a Slashdot search for "scifi" brings us to Saturday May 06, 2017. A Slashdot search for "science fiction" is even worse, taking us all of the way back to Saturday December 19, 2015!
Obviously we get subjected to far more Russia submissions than any having to do with sci-fi.
If we wanted to hear about Russia every single day, then we could just go read the news on CNN or MSNBC or BBC or some other mainstream news site.
The whole point of Slashdot is to learn about technology/science/math/computing-oriented news that the mainstream outlets don't have enough time or incentive to cover.
Yeah, a relevant submission about Russia now and then would be fine, but this constant barrage of "Russia Russia Russia Russia Russia Russia ..." is getting old.
We should be able to read about topics like Linux and programming and sci-fi far more often than about Russia of all things.
It's their RIGHT to organize search rankings as they see fit, and the right of others to accuse them of bias in suits. That's capitalism. It's funny when conservatives don't support these things just because it's xyz company that isn't 100% republican.
The abusive bully yelling "What are you going to do, hahahahaha!" is always the last think the bully says, before another kid gives him the surprise knockout.
I was that kid in school. Twice.
The second time, in 10th class, the teacher didn't even blink. Bullirs get what they deserve.
The BRICS countries work hard on freeing themselves from the US. The whole point of the EU is, to counter the US influence, in case you hadn't noticed. And the third world countries never could stand you to begin with. Which might have something to do with you invading and toppling the government of nearly every single one of them.
Everybody hates you. You are all alone. The only reason anybod listens to your notjob government aka psycho industry, is because you threaten everyone who doesn't. And that starts to fail now
So excuse me, while I get my popcorn.
Quick, report him to the authority! That will be the proof you need that the Russians HACKED the election, which we know is ""true"".. Why? Because Hillary's privately hired security firm(Crowd Strike ), says MAYBE the RUSSIANS hacked the DNC server, which NO NO ONE OUR government has ever looked over to confirm is there's even a MAYBE! And those that say they were MAYBE confident it was plausible, were hand picked and appointed by the Obama administration to give their OPINION on this fake-national-security. But who cares about facts when we have feelings, let's instead use it as an excuse to impose censorship on the web.
It sounds simple, but who defines outside my country? RT America produces content in Washington DC, for example. If we choose to ignore Reuters because it's based in the UK, how do we feel about Rupert Murdoch owning News Corp?
The thing is that technology has moved to the center of our political reality. Personally I'm equally interested in both types of stories, and feel that there is a good balance.
What I do worry about is that in many of these more political stories the comments often seem very reactionary. For example, on the stories about how Russia used Facebook to drive the left and right further apart. There you get comments like "nothing to see here, we always had propaganda, doing it through Facebook doesn't change much". While clearly it changes the scale, precision, subtlety and cost - all meaningful differences. But there were multiple comments downplaying if that all got up-voted. That gets me more worried. It means that either Slashdot is being manipulated, or that Slashdot's more critical readers have disappeared.
So for me the problem is not these stories, the problem is the low quality of discussion around them.
What the fuck, seriously what the fuck. You sound like a cultist that has drunk way, way too much google cool aid. Google is basically a web site that searches the internet and nothing more. First they started with do no evil and then the corporates took over and it was do evil all the fucking time. Basically either Google ponies up details or the Russian government kicks them out to favour Russian enterprises competing in the same area. To put it simply https://duckduckgo.com/?q=fuck... or the funnier version https://www.yandex.com/search/....
Google's number one marketing skill is self promotion. Scamming advertisers into believing they need to spend shit tons of money with Google to sell product and all based upon Googles research proving it, yep, uh huh. Google does only one thing well, self promote, sell the ability of Google to sell, reality is every one ignores googles ads, everyone skips youtube ads, google has very little influence in reality and that control, is the control over the people it sells it's marketing lies to, the real suckers spending billions on google ads that lead no where.
Now you have the big shit at alphabet carrying on like they have the actual power, they pretend to for marketing purpose. I can't tell whether the big shit is gas lighting them or he believes his own marketing and hype and sees himself as a internet GOD.
The internet connects people without people the internet is nothing. It is the people that give meaning to the internet. Google is shit, a big marketing scam, that has in the most pathetic cultist way started to believe it owns marketing. When google cuts off people it actually cuts itself out and the more people google isolates the more isolated google becomes. The reality is google has fuck all power and is the people's bitch, now suffering from delusions of grandeur and is going to get a rude awakening.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
And this point stretches far beyond just this. Google, with their own corporate culture driven motives, is totally incompetent to focus on anything but the most absolute and fundamental core competencies of their business. This goes for everything under Alphabet. They have been doing a great job of screwing up all kinds of shit lately. They need to remember the core purposes behind their business's and stick with that. Stepping outside of these things in every direction is why I maintain they are they next business too big to fail. As they continue to try and be more than what they are, their fall will be one of those industry shaking overnight type deals. Give it till 2020, no later.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
It's not one Russia narrative, it's several, all of which are relevant to slashdot. It's almost like they're a major power in the world and there are a lot of facets to it!
2016 election: Russia relevant (not saying Russia did it, just it's a story)
Cybersecurity: Russia relevant
Censorship online: Russia relevant
Anything geopolitical: Russia relevant
Uranium (non-political): Russia relevant.
Wikileaks: Russia relevant.
Partisan politicial issue about GOP, dems, greens: Russia relevant.
Is it possible that you're just upset because you're worried Russia will turn out to have ties to your preferred political side (applies to all sides)?
so, i think i agree with the black hole sentiment.
how many .ru domains are there that make a living (both legal and illegal) off search results? how many "fake news" sites are there that originate in russia? how many email spammers live in russia? how many apps in the google play store originate in russia?
if suddenly nobody can find any product or service that has an ip address in russia? if all of a sudden the largest email provider (currently with a billion users) blocks everything from russia? what happens if all of a sudden all the android phones (66% of the worldwide marketshare) suddenly stop working with russia-originating software?
it's pretty terrifying, personally, to think about the massive power google wields. especially for a nation that relies so heavily on spreading internet propaganda.
Another genious quoting "do no evil" from 1998.
First they started with do no evil and then the corporates took over and it was do evil all the fucking time.
What? A corporation seeking profits? Say it isn't so!
the real suckers spending billions on google ads that lead no where.
Yes, indeed. The people that spend hundreds of billions of dollars on advertising really don't know anything. They probably don't do any sort of studies or research to understand if they are throwing hundreds of billions of dollars down the toilet, because you know, they really hate money and don't care if they lose it. They should hire brainiacs like you to run they corporations. It'd save them hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
But you probably think your superior brain makes you immune, right? I think there's a lot of folks like you. The truth is that these people are the most severe victims. The first step to dealing with advertising is knowing that it effects you. If you can't even take the first step of acknowledgment, you're lost.
I'm looking at RT.com's front page right now. Everything looks semi-normal, no glaring "FAKE!" story, at least stories that go completely counter to what Western media is spouting. Taking a particular piece, about Lebanon's Hariri and the whole "quitting from Saudi Arabia" debacle of the last week :
https://www.rt.com/news/410561...
Comparing said story with the Washington Post's story on the same event shows near identical facts being stated by both outlets :
https://www.washingtonpost.com...
So... what's the issue with RT.com's coverage ? Only the fact that it's state sponsered ? But by that token, so is PBS, BBC, CBC, ABC (the Australian ABC, not the American one!)... This all seems rather unfair and lacking any actual substance. It seems to be ... actual anti-Russian propaganda in a way. Maybe if Alphabet were a bit more transparent about their findings that led up to this decision. I mean, surely they're not just doing this based on the "Russian meddling" narrative, that's based on a report from a private firm like Crowdstrike... or worse... the Steele Dossier that's been proven false in many regards. And why are they not blocking Buzzfeed news ? Let's be real. Buzzfeed.
"Not to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen."
Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, @06:49PM
That story got debunked hard. The Russian lawyer was magnitsky act lobbyist, and it was a setup. Both Jr. and the Lawyer were lied to about the meeting. Also, it's not actually collusion or illegal to receive information from foreign nationals about political opponents. What's illegal is paying for it.
Not to mention the links that Natalia Veselnitskaya has with Fusion GPS, which brings us to ... You know... the DNC and Clinton campaign paying for the Steele Dossier from Fusion GPS. Why do you think nothing ever came out of the Russian Lawyer meeting ?
If anything, we're discovering that any and all collusion in the election goes through Fusion GPS. And it all ties back to the DNC.
"Not to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen."
Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, @06:49PM
This Russian-Hacked-Our-Election is a an actual Conspiracy Theory being pushed by the establishment/media.So do you believe it? If so, you belive in conspiracy theories. ;)
:)
But you posted, so that opens up another option, as in you're obviously willing to have a discussion, so here I'll provide a few links. The more people that can actually look past this mainstream media-conspiracy about a Russian-hack, the better:
The DNC server is the source of this Russian hack conspiracy that's being shoved down our throats. So if this is true, you'd think our government would have looked at it right? They haven't:
Pick through the links, they're abundant and verifiable -- even Donna B. commented on it when she somewhat betrayed the DNC-cult after releasing her book:
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=DNC+...
We only have the word of Crowd Strike that maybe the DNC server was hacked. It's a belief, not a fact. So as mentioned, no one in our government has looked at it. Why is this?
http://investmentwatchblog.com...
https://www.washingtontimes.co...
I've been paying attention to what's going on, so it's hard to buy into any of this Russia-lie. And I like occasional CAPS, so suck it. Yelling is every single word in caps.
That story got debunked hard.
No, it didn't. We have the email. We have a Russian operative asking Jr. if he was interested in dirt about the Clintons. We have Jr. responding to the email "I love it".
Also, it's not actually collusion or illegal to receive information from foreign nationals about political opponents. What's illegal is paying for it.
Yes, we'll see. We have very smart, determined people that will decide that. Or maybe you have more evidence and research than these people and you're ready to call it? Check your scientific method bub.
What I know is that Trump's campaign at least conspired with an unfriendly foreign power to affect election results. Even if it's not illegal, America will decide if it was all in good fun, or not.
If anything, we're discovering that any and all collusion in the election goes through Fusion GPS. And it all ties back to the DNC.
No, we're not. Only nutjobs are going down that path. Seriously can you people do anything greater than regurgitate Fox news? It's just sad at this point.
Sure, if you think of international megacorps as being part of "the West" then I can see why you might presume that they would respond to the situation in a culturally beneficial way.
But what if they're greedy, and have no cultural loyalties other than to corporate money culture?
No, it didn't. We have the email. We have a Russian operative asking Jr. if he was interested in dirt about the Clintons. We have Jr. responding to the email "I love it".
The e-mail with Jr. was not from a Russian operative.
What I know is that Trump's campaign at least conspired with an unfriendly foreign power to affect election results.
But they didn't conspire and it didn't affect the election results.
No, we're not. Only nutjobs are going down that path. Seriously can you people do anything greater than regurgitate Fox news? It's just sad at this point.
Congress are nut jobs ?
https://www.reuters.com/articl...
You must just watch CNN.
"Not to mention all the idiots who use words like boxen."
Anonymous Coward on Monday August 04, @06:49PM
If the content comes from outside my country, maybe the content should be downranked. It's not just a Russia thing, it's a relevance thing.
The problem is, there are many times where the media *in* your own country won't cover something because of reasons. That happened an awful lot under the Obama(US), Chretien(Canada) and now under Trudeau Jr.(Canada). If you want to find what's really going on, it's almost required that you read opposition news media, or in some cases foreign news media. When I was a kid in the early 80's, I used to listen to USSR, UK, US and CDN media on longwave. That was the only way you got the full story on pretty much any subject. Funny enough, it was ingrained in my by my mother's side of the family who escaped from eastern germany and that was after my grandfather spent 10 years in a gulag after the holodomor they lived through.
Om, nomnomnom...
So... what's the issue with RT.com's coverage ?
They're russian. You're now getting a dose of cold war politics being pushed by the left because of some ideological reason. That reason is, they're so determined to believe that it was Russia that cost Hillary the presidency, they're willing to triple down.
Om, nomnomnom...
One has to differ between these four "offizicial state media":
1. Russia Today Russian Site
2. Russia Today International Site
3. sputniknews.com Russian Site
4. sputniknews.com International Site
All four usually deliver 80% of rather well written and researched. Stuff like "heavy rain damaged a road" or "prices for apples are up". Sometimes they even critizise single politicians. Not Putin and never the system for sure. You read rarelly about the opposition.
It is the other 20% where things are getting interesting.
1. and 2. usually reports whatever the russian goverment wants to get reported and do so in a mostly sincere way. They will not outright fabricate fake news or conspiracy theories but will gladly repeat these if the goverment came up with em. Most disputed content is given a heavy pro-goverment tone.
3. and 4. are less strict about bullshit. You will sometimes read really lame fake news and strange stuff and they will not even stay clear of fabricating "alien abduction stories" and worse... also they often click traps like "war porn", "whataboutism" and such stuff.
be aware: The russian and international edition often differ on subjects.
How would they represent "fake moon landing"?
1. "it happened but most parts have been overdramatized through selective media representation"
2. "it happened but some parts have been rearranged through selective media representation"
3. "there are many people and lots of evidence it never happened that way. Most americans don't believe it either.
3. "there are some people and some evidence it never happened that way. Smarter americans don't believe it either.
fun fact, there is a german public broadcast station sputnik.de targeting teens and tweens, broadcasting music and news from entertainment which gets mixed up a lot with sputniknews.com.
"Life is short and in most cases it ends with death." Sir Sinclair
Did anyone ever mention to you that collusion is not a crime? However, conspiracy against the government of the USA is a crime, a high crime in fact. That is what the Trump campaign is being investigated for, that and money laundering, possibly tax evasion as well. And, oh perjury. And, hmm, assorted unconstitutional activities. And, um, obstruction of justice. Hmm, probably that's not the end of it.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
If anything, we're discovering that any and all collusion in the election goes through Fusion GPS. And it all ties back to the DNC.
What is conveniently forgotten in the ongoing efforts to whitewash Trump is that Fusion GPS was originally hired by the Republican party to gather intel on Trump. It was the GOP and their friends who started the infamous dossier not the Democrats. Then Trump became the torchbearer of Republican hopes, the next Ronald Reagan and unifier of the nation, the Fusion GPS/Steel data was orphaned because the Republicans bet the farm on Trump and in the best traditions of American capitalism Fusion GPS took their product to the next most interested party, the DNC. Steele was retained by Fusion GPS before Trump won the GOP nomination and Fusion GPS had been gathering dirt on Trump for a long time by then. Not that any of this Russia stuff is what is most likely to bring Trump down. My money is on Trump going down in flames over something money related, probably laundering money from some very dirty sources and eventually when his tax returns finally get leaked, massive amounts of tax evasion. Trump is just far too vulnerable on the money side of things and has done too much shady business with too many shady people for it not to blow back on him. The only thing that can save him now is that the American people decide that Trump is such a good president that they don't care how corrupt and generally just what a vile person he is.
Specifically, which countries in Central America has Russia been bombing since 2002?
They aren't, you fascist POS. Georgia invaded South Ossetia and the United States overthrew the elected government of Ukraine.
At Syria's invitation, to defeat U.S. and Saudi sponsored ISIS and Al Queda terrorists occupying the country. Decidedly not a bullshit reason, as opposed to the illegal American wars on Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia....
NK built their own nukes as regime change insurance against the invasion the U.S. has been practicing every year since the 90's. You aren't even trying here, are you?
Your bullshit. It's NATO that's been threatening Russia, not Russia threatening anyone else. But again: how many bases does Russia have around the world compared to the United States?
RT pumps out conspiracy theories on an industrial scale. For example, here is a compilation of 50 of their 9/11 conspiracy theories: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Granted, Fox like a good conspiracy too, but even they can't match RT's dedication to manufacturing bullshit. They have reposted material from Infowars and had uber-conspiracy nut Alex Jones on many times. This story is a good example, this being the Infowars original.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Actually, if you'd been paying attention to paid shilling on here the last few years--as opposed to just recently when it became convenient to find things to blame on the Russians--US govt. and corporate shills have been here for years. Go read old (~2013) threads on network neutrality, nuclear energy, Julian Assange, etc., and ask yourself what Russia would have to gain from any of the clear and present trolling therein.
Pro-tip: Russia doesn't care about slashdot. It doesn't care about "sowing discord", despite when your fevered Rachel Maddow-turned-Glenn Beck fairweather-neocon talking heads tell you. There's much information out there about government-paid shills, and they aren't Russian.
https://theintercept.com/2014/...
Go read some threads around the time of Snowden's relevations
and notice all the spammy and straight-up disinformation in the comments. Now ask yourself, "why would Russia want to trash Snowden?" Then put two and two together, ditch your naiive russian victim fantasies and look in the fucking mirror, because it's your tax money that's paying for all the anonymous N-bombs and other garbage spam that has made slashdot's comments section insufferable the last while.
Like I said, sleep tight.
p.s. I'd hope for your sake that I'm not a Russian, because having a worse grasp of English grammar than a non-native speaker would be pretty sad.