A reader gave me a heads-up yesterday.
If you go to the blog, The Irish Savant you’ll get a message,
Blog has been removed
Sorry, the blog at irishsavant.blogspot.com has been removed. This address is not available for new blogs.
On March 17, 2009, in “Google vs. Irish Savant” I wrote,
The Irish Savant is on Google’s Index.
Google is trying to scare people off from reading the brilliant, often funny blog, The Irish Savant, by semi-blocking it. If you try to access the blog, you’ll instead get stopped at a cyber-checkpoint saying,
Blogger: Content WarningPush-Button Publishing
Content Warning
Some readers of this blog have contacted Google because they believe this blog's content is objectionable. In general, Google does not review nor do we endorse the content of this or any blog. For more information about our content policies, please visit the Blogger Terms of Service
Pass “Go,” and collect your $200. Do not be intimidated.
This is not the first time Google's Politburo has used intimidation (it has used semi-blocks against Robert Lindsay, and other bloggers) or censorship against writers whose politics its officials hate. It did to Dennis Mangan what it has now done to The Irish Savant, but responded to protests by restoring Mangan's blog. (To avoid the danger of being overly subtle: Protest on behalf of Irish Savant, dammit!) It has dropped various Web sites from its news round-up as "hate sites," merely for criticizing Islamic terrorism, it has at times done the same to Ann Coulter's columns out of political retaliation, and it has periodically suppressed information about my (Google-owned!) blogs and those of other writers critical of the Left.
Google is no friend to freedom, and the day is near, I suppose, when I shall join the ranks of the "disappeared," which is why buddies are always reminding me to back up my work.
Be strong, my friends!
I just went there now - and it's still there. They were probably just harrassing him.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like harassment indeed.
ReplyDeleteTelling the truth is no simple task.
Thanks for the heads-up, MCB. I read his newest essay on SA, but didn't have time to ask him about his ordeal with Google.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, Niv. Do the censors think that will cause Irish Savant to censor shimself, out of fear of them shutting him down permanently, the next time?
ReplyDeleteThey are tightening the noose with each passing day.
ReplyDeleteFebruary 5, 2011 --
ReplyDeleteAs of the Above Date & Time Savant is down.
Checked about, there is no "i understand and wish to continue" only a little squib saying the "author only" may sign in which defeats the whole idea of a blog.
Not that we didn't see it coming. Best of luck to Sav, and if he should ride it out and find another place to post his genius, all is well. If not, like the politician once put it longtime back, "He did hid damndest" and that's good enough for this potty and ungrateful world.
Thanks for your work Savant, and you will live on in the hearts and minds you've inspired. Best to ya.