Tell HN: Google removes Russian news from results

by supergirl on 3/6/2022, 8:29 AM with 33 comments

Searching for "Russia Today" or "Sputnik News" doesn't return their URLs, but does return other related links. Seems to be related to a gov request: https://lumendatabase.org/notices/26927483#.

It's not a court order, so Google voluntarily decided to implement this.

Mildly interesting; I don't think anyone is surprised.

  • by ComradePhil on 3/6/2022, 1:28 PM

    I have said it before[1][2] and I will say it again:

    The Chinese model of online information management has been extremely successful and there is no reason for other rulers to not try to copy it.

    India has it in place[3], Russia is trying to do it [4]... and the west has been doing it too and it is done by making it seem like people have free choice of posting infromation but having tech companies remove, hide, shadow-ban, or otherwise limit the spread of information dangerous to the rulers.

    This is inevitable and there are no other options.

    [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30510857

    [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30492226

    [3] https://advox.globalvoices.org/2020/02/10/what-do-we-know-ab...

    [4] https://www.economist.com/business/russia-is-trying-to-build...

  • by iExploder on 3/6/2022, 9:54 AM

    and in another news... russia removes european news, because thats propaganda

    you see, propaganda is only good when its OUR propaganda, and freedom of speech is only freedom when what you are speaking aligns with our values...

    you can have a discussion about anything as long as both sides fundamentally agree with the mainstream narrative

  • by Tenoke on 3/6/2022, 10:43 AM

    >Mildly interesting; I don't think anyone is surprised.

    I am surprised. I didn't expect to be Great Firewall'd without fanfare as an European and I haven't seen Google Search be quite that heavy handed before.

    I also get a message that I can't access RT's Twitter from Germany nor can I search what they are saying in Russia directly in any of the usual places.

  • by mmarq on 3/6/2022, 8:42 AM

    These outlets have been sanctioned by, at least, the EU. I think it’s safer to block them everywhere.

    Said that, they are part of the propaganda machine of a criminal regime, something akin to Der Stürmer. As far as I’m concerned, they shouldn’t have been there in the first place.

  • by markus_zhang on 3/6/2022, 11:33 AM

    If other search engines start to do similar things, it's going to be really dangerous for democracy.

  • by kderbyma on 3/6/2022, 2:51 PM

    I want of freedom of speech ... this is how Google makes us dumb....and bugs up all the good deals...

    it's COVID all over again. far news from the trusted sources.

  • by unraveller on 3/6/2022, 9:37 AM

    uBlocklist extension[1] lets you filter out URL hosts who have information supremacy delusions from your google/ddg news feed.

    [1]https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ublacklist/pncfbmi...

  • by someonehere on 3/6/2022, 1:46 PM

    Trying to pretend there isn’t one world power at work here is kinda making the conspiracy theorists sound reasonable.

  • by jrwan on 3/6/2022, 11:49 PM

    I search “rt” and the first link Google returns is www.rt.com.

  • by gt565k on 3/6/2022, 9:51 PM

    The case for a decentralized Web 3.0 grows by the minute.

  • by bjourne on 3/6/2022, 11:55 AM

    A censorship resistant search engine in sorely needed.

  • by rvz on 3/6/2022, 10:18 AM

    Unsurprising.

    I’m just writing down all the nasty things that these private platforms can do when you cross the line somehow whenever they want.

  • by guidovranken on 3/6/2022, 8:51 AM

    Read the books they want to ban. Thanks for the heads up.

  • by aaron695 on 3/6/2022, 9:52 AM

    undefined