Google introduces its new global censorship tool

15.08.23 (8)

Google has partnered with the United Nations, World Health Organisation and others in a new global censorship tool that was introduced last Monday, according to LaToya Drake, head of Google News Lab.

Google News Lab is “a team within the Google News Initiative whose mission is to collaborate with journalists to fight misinformation” and other things. And, the Google News Initiative (“GNI”) “works with publishers and journalists to fight misinformation.” The GNI and its Lab seem to be one and the same thing with the Lab simply being a page on the GNI website.

Below are the short descriptions from GNI’s ‘About’ page. The titles are misleading. For example, following the ‘Our partners’ hyperlink contained in the words “learn more” does not lead to a list or overview of its partners. It leads to ‘Case Studies’: Some “stories” about “how news organisations around the world are growing their news coverage and digital businesses.” After which Google advertises some other of its products and invites the reader to “sign up for our newsletter.”

We truly have entered the era of George Orwell’s Doublethink and Doublespeak.

Google’s Global Censorship Tool

Last week, Swiss software developer Dejan Georgiev tweeted: “Google’s new global censorship tool was introduced today [7 August] at 9:10 am via an email press release.”

Google’s new global censorship tool was introduced today at 9:10 a.m. via an email press release.

According to LaToya Drake, head of Google News Initiative.

Instead of global internet censorship, Google calls it “Fact Check Tools.”
Its purpose is to eliminate dissent on any…
— Dejan (@georgievdejan) August 9, 2023

The following uses the points that Geogiev highlighted about GNI’s new censorship tool as a backbone to which we have added information for context. A copy of the Twitter thread above, with some additional comments, can also be read on Naked Truth News HERE.

GNI doesn’t describe itself for what it is – the global internet censorship – instead Google describes it as “Fact Check Tools.”

Source: New global internet censorship began today, Naked Truth News, 7 August 2023

What is GNI’s true purpose? Its purpose is to eliminate dissent on any topic Google chooses. “The algorithms are Google’s last-ditch attempt to control the internet before people worldwide can no longer access it. The goal is to have one point of view. Google calls it ‘Data Commons’,” Naked Truth News wrote.

Hosted by Google, Data Commons aggregates data from a wide range of sources into a unified database. It is a collection of data and tools which, broadly speaking, comprise a “knowledge graph” linking data from numerous open sources, supporting schemas, an API to access data in the graph, a graph browser, and a fact-check dataset.

It links references to the same entities – such as cities, counties, organisations, etc. – across different datasets to nodes on the graph, so that users can access data about a particular entity aggregated from different sources. In other words, it allows someone to query a person or entity and all the information about that person or entity within Google’s database is displayed.

The Data Commons site was launched in May 2018 with an initial dataset consisting of fact-checking data published in ClaimReview format by several “fact-checkers” from Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network and Duke Reporters’ Lab.

By October 2018, Data Commons reported that the release of the sample dataset had stimulated further interest in the study of misinformation and that it had “received requests from academia to update the fact check corpus regularly and allow more publishers and non-technical users to add ClaimReview markups.” These requests were satisfied by the introduction of a suite of Google-based fact-check tools.

In October 2020, Data Commons became accessible in Google search: “We are excited to share that Data Commons is accessible via natural language queries in Google search. At a time when data informs our understanding of so many issues – from public health and education to the evolving workforce and more – access to data has never been more important. Data Commons in Google search is a step in this direction, enabling users to explore data without the need for expertise or programming skills.”

In a video published a week ago, LaToya Drake encouraged “fact-checkers” and journalists to explore the digital tools designed specifically for them to help “verify the authenticity and accuracy” of online images, videos, and reports.

Google News Initiative: Google tools for fact-checkers, 4 August 2023 (4 mins)

Far from the noble intention of assisting with the factual verification of information online, Geogiev wrote that Google’s algorithms are designed to delete websites that criticise topics such as:

Covid-19 statistics
The World Bank
The FBI’s crime statistics
PharmGKB
A one-world global government

Read more: Data Commons Updates, 1 June 2021

GNI’s Partners

Wikipedia’s page for Data Commons states: “Google has worked with partners including the United States Census, the World Bank, and US Bureau of Labor Statistics to populate the repository, which also hosts data from Wikipedia, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

The Data Commons website adds: “Data Commons has benefited greatly from many collaborations. In addition to help from the US Department of Commerce (notably the Census Bureau), we have received help from our many academic collaborations, including, UC San Francisco, Stanford University, UC Berkeley and Harvard.”

But to understand the magnitude of GNI’s network, you can view a non-exhaustive 71-page list of its more than 7,000 partners HERE. This document can be accessed, not via the hyperlink under ‘Our partners’ on its ‘About’ page as previously noted but buried, on GNI’s ‘2021 Impact Report’ page (see image below).