When you want information on a certain subject, or need an answer to settle a debate, where do you go?

Google. Obviously.

It’s the first stop most people make in their journey to gain knowledge on a any topic.

But Google also happens to be guilty of heavy censorship.

Quarantines

Have you ever tried to visit a site, and Google warns that it’s dangerous? Perhaps it’s a known phishing site. Or it contains malicious malware. Some sites you can’t visit even if you wanted to.

But wait. That can’t be right. You’ve used this site regularly in the past. So you head to another search engine. But you can’t get to the site from there either. What gives?

Well, Google has crawlers that continuously search the web in an effort to find malicious sites that pose possible dangers to users. This is great – in theory. Google compiles a regularly updated quarantine list. It is this comprehensive list that Google, and most of the other big search engines, rely on.

A compilation of potentially damaging websites designed to protect users from exposure to unseen dangers in the cyberworld. This can’t be that bad, right?

Well, it takes mere seconds for these crawlers to tag your website as problematic. Whether your site is flagged for a reason––or in error––your site is now on this blacklist. And getting your website removed from such a list isn’t as easy getting on it in the first place.

The issue with these crawlers is that they make mistakes. For a legitimate business this can be disastrous. Internet income can be cut off for weeks. It might even require a security expert to fix the problem, which can cost upwards of $10,000.

Blacklists

There is more than one blacklist, my friends.

Have you ever noticed that when you start to type in the search box there are certain things that pop up, and certain things that don’t? These instant results often filter out political figures and/or sexually oriented material. Is that weird?

Well, no…it really isn’t. Google is determining what is good and what is bad for you.

Google has been known to blacklist certain news websites, as well as individual columnists. At first glance, this censorship may not sound all that significant. And perhaps some of these sources do deserve to be blacklisted.

But this can make things rather difficult for legitimate websites. For instance, political figures who want to use the power of the internet to promote a particular platform or agenda. It can be challenging, if not impossible, to get your voice heard if a search engine is intentionally obfuscating your traffic.

There have been some pesky accusations involving the Google AdSense project. Many companies now use this to increase their revenue. When users click on an ad, it generates income for the website publisher. This becomes an income stream with the potential to generate millions dollars annually for websites that capture a high volume of traffic. One small problem…Google has been accused of dropping people from the program just as payday approaches.

An additional headache is the risk of being demoted in the Search Engine ranks if you are caught abusing SEO (Search Engine Optimization). It happened to JC Penney. When Google deemed that Penny’s system of link-building was against their Terms of Service, JC Penny dropped 60 places in the rankings. If this had happened to a smaller business, it could have been catastrophic.

Google could be guilty of running the strictest “We Reserve the Right to Refuse Service to Anyone” campaign the internet has even seen.