January 25, 2023
RT Editor Responds To Claim Google Will De-Rank News Agencies' Content
- by Laurie Sullivan @lauriesullivan, November 21, 2017
Sputnik and Russia Today (RT) Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan, responded to a comment that Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt made while speaking at the Halifax International Security Forum this past weekend. The comment suggested that Google would de-rank any content from the news organizations that is indexing in Google's search engine.
"Good to have Google on record as defying all logic and reason: facts aren't allowed if they come from RT, 'because Russia' – even if we have Google on Congressional record saying they've found no manipulation of their platform or policy violations by RT," she said in a statement published on RT.
"I am strongly not in favour of censorship," Schmidt said. "I am very strongly in favor of ranking. It's what we do. It's a very legitimate question as to how we rank, A or B, right? And we do the best we can in millions and millions of rankings every day."
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Schmidt said Google is working to detect and de-rank sites that publish misinformation and fake news. He said the company will engineer specific algorithms for RT and Sputnik to make their articles less prominent on the search engine's news services.
Google's search engine algorithms could be used to de-rank RT and Sputnik'c content, the BBC reports.
Calling it a form of censorship because it leads readers away from RT content, Dan Kovalik, a professor from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, told RT that Google’s initiative will have a direct impact on freedom of speech and thought.
RT can complain all they like, but the fact is that they are a propaganda tool employed by a hostile foreign power to promote or bury themes, narratives and stories depending on the wishes of their master, Validimir Putin. Freedom of speech, as they say, isn't a suicide pact where we all have to concede to the propagandistic efforts of sworn enemies. And in any case, Google - a US company - doesn't have to promote that propaganda on their privately owned website.
The nerve of RT and Sputnik is pretty galling. If you want to get just a tiny idea of what I'm talking about, go and spend an hour or two scanning through "news coverage" by RT during the elections. Videos and articles about how Hillary Clinton was funding ISIS, various articles about her health and how the US media is "burying" shocking stories about it.. Oh, but Russia and President Trump sure make out looking rosy! It's like someone indexed every article ever legitimately stamped "fake news" and dolled it up with some sweet Russian production money. It's the most ridiculous, one-sided and for-sure-aligned-with-the-Kremlin's-propaganda-arm nonsense you've ever seen. We need to bring the hammer down on hostile foreign propaganda efforts and stop pretending that they're "just another point of view."
As for you Dan Kovalik.. I weep for your plaintive grieving over efforts to secure our country from the unceasing onslaught of propaganda and divisive, galling fake news being released by RT and Sputnik. Will it have an impact on thought? Yeah, hopefully. Hopefully we can reverse this trend of irrational adherence to conspiracy theories perpetuated by the ubiquitous far-right/Russian propaganda engine that is so thoroughly decimating our elections and internal policy. Will it impact freedom of speech? I guess if you think foreign powers have a Constitutional right to manipulate US media into reporting their propaganda. Personally, I don't. I think we've danced around this issue for far too long, and frankly, it's pretty disgusting when people try to support this kind of thing.