Sunday, February 2, 2020

Google and Facebook shadow banning pro-Israel voices

I first noticed it last year, and it was discouraging, to say the least.

Google was not picking up my posts.

Searching for keywords I use, searching for exact titles and phrases I used, still nothing.

My blogger settings were fine.  That wasn't it.

Google picked up the Campus Watch reprint of my story on Hatem Bazian's failed feta boycott, but not my original, here.

Searching for the exact key words of the post Hatem Bazian's BDS feta fail at Trader Joes yields  no results for this blog.
Shadow banning is real. 

There was no warning.  There was no appeal. There was no statement on how to fix this. 

Other search engines still pick up my postings.  People are finding their way here. I can see my user statistics and the comments left behind. 

From Duck Duck Go:



Today, the shadow ban extends to Facebook.  Multiple people attempting to share my post on the  Gaza strawberry exports have been told its  "abusive".

 I have no way of knowing if this is the work of a rogue Google employee, an algorithm gone wrong, or a direct and cynical attempt to silence pro-Israel voices.   Whatever the explanation,  it is dangerous to assume that Google or any other Web giant is a neutral arbitrator. 

Has anyone else experienced this? What recourse do we have?  Is exporting the content to a new blog the way to go?   Is it time to abandon Blogger as a platform altogether?

Feedback and advice welcome.


3 comments:

Unknown said...
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Unknown said...

Thank you for this tweet. Ppl had let this nut off too easily. I sent her the same message via Instagram bc I’m not on twitter but saw this thru EoZ.

https://twitter.com/DrMikeH49/status/1225207161833185280?s=20

Dusty said...

The Google issue may be resolved- thank you for your help. Facebook is still problematic, but kept linking and appealing. This to shall pass.