Perrspectives: Articles: Google's Gag Order

Perrspectives: Articles: Google's Gag Order: "Every once in a while in America’s consumer society, a company, product or service rises above its mere utility to achieve iconic status in the culture. Its very novelty, innovation, or just manufactured “cool” allow it to enter the daily American lexicon. As nouns, brands like Kleenex (facial tissues), Rollerblade (in-line skates), or Coke (any soft drink south of the Mason Dixon Line) are equated with an entire product category, eclipsing all competitors. Others achieve the even loftier status of verbs, as in “to Xerox.”

As I learned this week, however, Google may be playing a darker, more sinister role in American society: corporate censor. On June 15, the Google Adwords team informed me that it had discontinued all advertisements placed by Perrspectives.com due to “unacceptable content” on the site that includes “language that advocates against an individual, group or organization.” As we’ll see below, this may or may not be blatant bias against liberal viewpoints. There can be no doubt, though, that the current Google editorial guidelines, evenly applied, would bar almost any newspaper, magazine, opinion journal, political party, advocacy campaign or even religious organization from advertising on its site. And that puts Google dangerously at odds with core American values of free speech and assembly.

On June 15th, 2004 the Google Adwords Team sent me a notification that all of my four-line text ads had been discontinued due to “unacceptable content.” The ads involved included headlines such “The Liberal Resource”, “The Progressive Resource”, “Bill Clinton & More”, “The Real Enron Scandal.” The supporting text included expressions such as “analysis, commentary and satire”, “complete liberal resource center”, “caustic commentary”, and others.

Given the recent flaps over the apparent double-standard in prime-time advertising at CBS (running virulently anti-Clinton ads by the right-wing Citizens United, refusing to air ant-Bush ads by MoveOn during the Super Bowl), I was immediately suspicious of anti-liberal bias by Google towards advertisers. Doing a quick check, I found no shortage of conservative advertisers currently on Google that made me seem like Mother Theresa in comparison.

These following conservative sites, many of which are decidedly to the right of Attila the Hun, currently advertise using Google Adwords:

* Value Watch. This site advocates against Democrats, liberals and progressives of all stripes, and calls out right-wing bogeymen Ted Kennedy and Michael Moore by name. It most assuredly uses “language that advocates against an individual, group or organization.”

* Republican Gear. This site not only sells Republican political items, it sells items that "advocate against" individuals and organizations” including t-shirts with slogans like "Friends Don't Let Friends Vote Democratic", as well as one picturing Osama Bin Laden stating "I Want You to Vote for John Kerry.”

* The Right Review. The Right Review also "advocates against" John Kerry, Democrats and the ACLU. It also includes a cartoon of John Kerry dropping his pants.

* The Conservative Index. This site calls John Kerry “scary” and calls him “duplicitous.” Perhaps among conservatives, those expressions are terms of endearment.

* Right Wing Conspiracy. This is apparently another home for right-wing fun and frolic.

* Michael Moore Hates America. Sounds like a site that "advocates against an individual" to me. Yet the Google Adwords team confirmed to a Perrspectives reader that Michael Moore Hates America does NOT violate the same editorial guidelines by which it dropped Perrspectives.com.


Google may not necessarily have a conservative bias in filtering advertisers, but it would seem to be blatantly sizeist. That is, large organizations, well-known brands, big-spending advertisers, both political parties and other high-profile groups get a pass on the “advocates against” standard. Left or right, secular or sacred, size does matter:


* The New York Times. In its June 15, 2004 issue, the Times published a column by Paul Krugman in which he called John Ashcroft "John Ashcroft is the worst attorney general in history." While music to my ears, that certainly is "language that advocates against an individual."

* National Review. This conservative magazine, which is advertised for sale on Google, has a section ("Kerry Spot") dedicated to attacking John Kerry in addition to its usual liberal-bashing fare.

* Republican Party. Search for “republican national convention” and you’ll that the Republican Party advertises for contributions using Google Adwords. GOP.com contains entire sections attacking John Kerry. No doubt the Democratic web site has mirror image content.

* John Kerry for President. The John Kerry campaign is also a Google advertiser. What is a generally a positive site advocating for John Kerry also debunks the Bush record and has video of anti-Bush ads.

* The American Conservative. Pat Buchanan’s magazine is another Google conservative print advertiser. One of the magazine covers shown on the site depicts George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld as "Pinocchios" with long noses. The cover article ("Pinocchio Presidency") uses the following language advocating against individuals and groups: “The Bush administration lied America into war, and the damage to our credibility will be long-lasting and grave."

* Christianity Today. This magazine has articles that, for example, attack gay Americans and pro-choice advocates. For an example, see "Sowing Confusion" by Watergate felon turned prison preacher Charles Colson.

* Washington Post and National Public Radio. Do a search for "Ronald Reagan". You'll find Google ads from both the Washington Post and NPR displayed. Both contain content and commentary not particularly flattering to the late President Reagan.

As it turns out, Perrspectives.com is by no means the first advertiser to run afoul of Google’s editorial guidelines. Ironically, a quick Google search of "censorship google adwords" revealed many others.

Not all involved the same “advocates against” standard. Google Adwords ads from a gun dealer and a vendor of Nazi memorabilia were shut down, in a replay of the discussion over offensive or dangerous material eBay earlier lived through. Interestingly, while sites offering firearms and Nazi trinkets were dropped, some porn sites apparently passed muster with the Google Adwords editorial board.

Several others Google advertisers suffered the same fate as Perrspectives.com. Nitestar, which offers the “Deck of Bush” joke playing cards, had its ads terminated on the same grounds of “advocating against” some person or group. In May, they issued a press release ("Google Adwords Censors Ad Campaign Critical of President Bush"); as of this writing, they are still unable to resume advertising on Google. An independent filmmaker also had ads dropped, as did a web poet. The Body Shop founder Anita Roddick had a run in with Google over commentary regarding actor John Malkovich. Workers trying to unionize at Wal-Mart had a similar experience. The site Unknown News had its ads restored by Google, only after a long correspondence establishing that their views against the Iraq war were not inherently against any person or group.

Of course, Google is not the government; as a commercial entity, it does not have the obligation to respect all speech constitutionally protected under the 1st Amendment. Google is, however, one of those rare corporate brands that cross the world of business into mainstream culture. That status brings both precious commercial benefits and real social responsibilities. Google has simply become too central to Americans' ability to speak out, recruit the like-minded, sell products and build businesses. One role Google must not be allowed to assume is that of 21st century censor."