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International Removals of Google Results  (View post)

Ricardo Sanchez [PersonRank 2]

Tuesday, June 12, 2007
17 years ago10,815 views

I was intrigued about the results removed in my country, Spain.

I checked the list, and after a little Google searching, I found some info about the two local companies that requested removals: Revelance S.A and Progedsa Soluciones, S.L.

Both of them, according to some blog posts, are sect-like fishy piramidal companies, which recruit you into a kind of salesmanship scheme, in which you have to recruit more people and/or have them buy the product (Revelance seems to sell mainly cosmetics, don't know about the other one). Once you are working there, it seems difficult to leave the company, due to their piramidal nature, and the moral adoctrination they perform on you. They, although seemingly legal, are highly critizised by people who successfully left them.

Does this kind of 'commeracial sect/company' exist in your country? I think some time ago I read about something similar in the US.

This teaches us two things. First, that if something fishy is going on, and you do not want anybody to notice, trying to get removed the results that talk badly about you is futile, because new ones will pop up more sooner than later. Second, this will be counterproductive, because people will notice your requested removal, and will investigate further.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

> Does this kind of 'commeracial sect/company' exist
> in your country? I think some time ago I read about
> something similar in the US.

Actually in the US (I'm from Germany, by the way), Scientology got Google to remove certain pages from web results (in fact, they were the first to do so, as Matt Cutts once told Search Engine Roundtable). To reproduce this:

1. go to Google.com
2. search for "Xenu"
3. scroll down to the footnote in italics and click the "read the DMCA complaint" link
4. check the sender of the complaint...

Daniel Garcia [PersonRank 6]

17 years ago #

In SPAIN we have a big problem. There is a organization called SGAE (Sociedad General de Autores y Editores) that collects a 'canon' of 20% from every gadget (mp3, digital cam, notebook, memory card, CD, DVD, HD, etc...)

This organization demands several webs for defamation and they win. People's right squashed

Ricardo Sanchez [PersonRank 2]

17 years ago #

Yeah I knew about scientology censorship. They are very (in)famous lately, appearing on DIGG, Southpark, etc. It is sad that there exist so gullible people that believes all that crazy stuff about Xenu and continue to give money to this cult.

I think the SGAE theme needs clarification. This Spanish organzation is more or less like the american RIAA. They haven't started filling lawsuits against people downloading mp3 music from p2p networks yet, because I think it is not (yet?) legal here (or at least, it is a grey area, I am not a lawyer).

Instead, they focus on lobbying for, and collecting a kind of a 'toll'. They have successfully applied it to CDrs and DVDrs (not sure about other media, but they are trying). I don't think that it's the 20%, but on CDrs, cheap as they are to produce, it represents a quite high percentage of the total cost. People is complaining more and more, because this 'toll' assumes all media is used for storing mp3, whereas that is not the real situation.

They suffered several Google bombings, with words like 'estafadores' (which means con-men), 'ladrones' (thieves), or 'mafia'. I am not sure if they succeeded in requesting Google to censor some results, or if the Google bombings disappeared due to improving of Google algorithms.

Also, the filled lawsuits against webmasters posting such 'defamatory' statements. One of this lawsuits is against http://www.frikipedia.es/ , a spanish clone of http://uncyclopedia.org/ , with original content. The SGAE article was very funny, and quite absurd, but they took some insults like 'thieves' or 'mafia people' seriously. Frikipedia is in a frozen state until the lawsuit is being disputed, meanwhile I think the spanish version of uncyclopedia has superseeded it.

It is a shame they are almost shutting down a fun and legitimate site like Frikipedia just because a parody article on this overzealous organization.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

So far Google doesn't answer the China question (except by providing this link http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/testimony-internet-in-china.html) but in a follow-up says:

"[A]ll countries have laws that prohibit certain content and each country's laws are different. For example, Germany restricts Nazi emblems, Korea restricts publication of RRNs which is an equivalent of a social security number, and China has a number of restrictions on content. We take these various laws into account when serving web search results from different domains and we notify our users when we remove results for legal reasons."

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

In another follow-up, a Google spokesperson states:

"We do not post removals from Google.cn on Chilling Effects because the Chinese government does not send written removal requests to Google. Google.cn does, however present users with a clear notification whenever links have been removed from our search results in response to local laws and regulations in China."

Free-speech now [PersonRank 0]

17 years ago #

Don't worry dear blogger, it will be your page next.

Roger Browne [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

> Google.cn does, however present users with a clear notification
> whenever links have been removed from our search results in
> response to local laws and regulations in China.

Perhaps for each removal, Google could explicitly state which law or regulation required it.

James Xuan [PersonRank 10]

17 years ago #

I agree. I don't mind censorship of child pornography and such but censoring free speech and humanitarian rights sites just to get profits is against what I would believe in. Maybe Google is just a cold-hearted corporation like Microsoft. They could be Microsoft-Lite

Vera Justin [PersonRank 0]

16 years ago #

FYI The Progedsa Soluciones have apparently changed their name now and call themselves "NewTeamEnergy". We haven't been able to trace much yet from New Team Energy but we will see how things develop.

Regards Vera
from the Team Alethea, againstscam

[Signature URL removed – Tony]

Hong Xiaowan [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

[put at-character here]James Xuan

Google is not cold-hearted. In China, no censorship means kill Google itself. In china, Fox like company lives well. If Google no censorship, Google will be banned often.

China have complex culture, religion, habit, so gov try to say nothing except money. Google should do this way also.

Long long ago, Google was TOP 1 in china. Google lost most marketshare only because it had no censorship before, it is honest, or stupid? Once Google was TOP 3. Now, Good news, Google is TOP 2. Kaifu Lee, Google China CEO, did a good work.

Wish Google back to TOP 1.

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