"IN DEFENSE OF RURAL AMERICA"
a weekly column published every Sunday by
Ron Ewart, President of the
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF RURAL LANDOWNERS

For the week of:
Sunday, April 3, 2016

The "In Defense of Rural America" column archives are available HERE.

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"Are Democrats Using Google To Silence Free Speech?"
From * In Defense of Rural America *
By Ron Ewart, President
National Association of Rural Landowners
and nationally recognized author on freedom and property rights issues.
We are helping to spread freedom and liberty around the globe.
© Copyright April 3, 2016 - All Rights Reserved

The Internet has brought an explosion of information to the general public across the globe. Unfortunately, much of the information we get from the Internet, whether it be by websites, e-mail, or on social media, is un-vetted and much of it is misleading and simply not true. Finding the truth can be a real chore sometimes, requiring hours of research and even then the truth may be illusive. Yes, the information flowing unchecked in cyberspace can lead to disagreements from time to time, but thankfully you can’t throw a punch, or pull a trigger, on the Internet.

Nevertheless, the Internet, through all of its medium forms, has provided a conduit for individual expression like never before in the history of man. Opinions, thoughts, beliefs, ideas and images flow freely to tens of millions of individuals in microseconds, every minute, every hour, every day. People of like mind can hook up at the speed of light and organize forums around either specific or general subjects or issues at will. The free flow of ideas, however flawed, is the very epitome of freedom. But what if someone could tamper with this free flow of ideas for a political agenda, or any agenda?

The growth of the Internet has also led to the formation of corporate giants like AOL, Facebook, Google, Instagram, Dell, HP, Microsoft, IBM and thousands of smaller companies. The corporate profits generated by the Internet are in the tens of billions of dollars every year.

Unfortunately, one of the drawbacks of corporate giants, awash in cash, is the wielding of great financial and political power to manipulate and exploit the people they allegedly serve. We ran into that manipulative power just recently when we discovered that some conservative authors, including us, are being silenced by a tricky Google tactic (yes, Google) through their web browser, “Google Chrome,” by attaching a Security Alert to any website that doesn’t fit the Google liberal narrative. On the Newswithviews website (http://www.newswithviews.com) Google has attached a Security Alert to over half of the authors that write for this conservative, on-line publication. In further research, we found that other websites offering a conservative point of view have also been targeted by Google Chrome’s Security Alerts.

Google’s Security Alerts advise the reader that the particular website they have logged onto may contain Malware and advised to go back to a “safe” page. The Alert is clearly bogus and obviously done for political motives in a highly charged presidential campaign season. Ironically, these Security Alerts only happen with the Google Chrome browser. We could find no such tampering with other browsers. Who controls Google Chrome? Google of course.

Now, if you are thinking that this is just an isolated incident, or an accident, or a coincidence, or a quirk of the Google Chrome browser, think again. The Google Chrome Security Alert suddenly appeared on multiple conservative articles a week or so ago, right after Donald Trump held up an article from the Newswithviews website and the website received over 3,000,000 hits in one day. One might ask, why would Google do this? The answer is simple and glaring.

“Few Silicon Valley companies have ever embraced a political party as passionately as Google has. Its executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, has been described as a "kind of guru" to President Obama's campaign manager, and Google employees emerged as the No. 2 donor to the Democratic National Committee in the last election.”

We were incensed that a major U. S. Corporation would use its power to tamper with free speech and more specifically attempting to silence our conservative articles. So incensed in fact that we penned a terse message to the Google Board of Directors, e-mailing it to their Investor Relations department at the following e-mail address: investor-relations@abc.xyz. We have reprinted that message in its entirety below.

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To Google’s Board of Directors:

Larry Page Sergey Brin Eric E. Schmidt L. John Doerr Diane B. Greene John L. Hennessy Ann Mather Alan R. Mulally Paul S. Otellini K. Ram Shriram Shirley M. Tilghman

I am a national author and president of a non-profit corporation that acts as advocates for the American rural landowner. I have been writing a conservative weekly column for 10 years. I have a significant following.

Just recently, I have found many of my articles and many other conservative articles are being tagged with a SECURITY ALERT, for those users using Google Chrome, driving people away from our right to free speech. With specificity, many of the authors that write for the on-line magazine www.newswithviews.com have been targeted for this Security Alert treatment. But Google is also targeting other on-line publications with this treatment as well.

Google's Mission is, according to the Google website:

Focus on the user and all else will follow.

"Since the beginning, Google has focused on providing the best user experience possible. Whether we’re designing a new Internet browser or a new tweak to the look of the homepage, we take great care to ensure that they will ultimately serve you, rather than our own internal goal or bottom line. Our homepage interface is clear and simple, and pages load instantly. Placement in search results is never sold to anyone, and advertising is not only clearly marked as such, it offers relevant content and is not distracting. And when we build new tools and applications, we believe they should work so well you don’t have to consider how they might have been designed differently."

Does focusing on the user mean censoring what he or she writes? Is that your mission Google Board of Directors?

If that is your mission, then you are un-American and show a perverse propensity for progressivism, socialism, or even communism. Or, you just want to shut up and silence any other debate except the liberal view you obviously hold.

Google has immense power. With power comes responsibility, or that power descends into absolute power.

Which is it Google?

Remove the SECURITY ALERTS now from your Google Chrome browser! Or lose your stellar reputation via the very medium you exploit to advance a political agenda and make huge profits.

We will be sharing this message with thousands of other Internet users.



Ron Ewart, President
National Association of Rural Landowners
http://www.narlo.org

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If you are as angry as we are that Google, a great provider of Internet information and services, would under handedly use its immense cyber power to silence opposing views to their own liberal views by electronic trickery, using the Google Chrome browser as its weapon, then perhaps it is time to shut down the Google Investor Relations e-mail address with messages of your displeasure to the Google Board. It will cost you but a few minutes of your time and you can do it right from your ow

Google is a huge corporation with unimaginable financial and political power with direct access to President Obama and his administration. To have any effect at all, this article must go viral. It takes millions of people to make a difference in America today. The Internet gives the people the power and the voices to coalesce around an idea or an issue and overcome the power of giant corporations and government. That is if the people aren’t totally distracted by drugs and entertainment and hopelessly apathetic, like we see on the O’Reilly Factor’s Water’s World.

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Ron Ewart, a nationally known author and speaker on freedom and property issues and author of his weekly column, "In Defense of Rural America", is the President of the National Association of Rural Landowners, (NARLO) a non-profit corporation headquartered in Washington State and dedicated to restoring, maintaining and defending property rights for urban and rural landowners. He can be reached by e-mail for comment at info@narlo.org or by 'phone at 1 800 682-7848.

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COMMENTS: Should you desire, you can e-mail a comment to this article at: comment@narlo.org. Worthy, thoughtful comments, in our sole discretion, will be posted below the article. Comments that use foul language, pejoratives, or attacks against others will be discarded. Be sure to include your full name, as blind e-mail comments will not be posted.

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