Recently, Google banned Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank, from advertising after it posted an academic essay and debate surrounding multiculturalism on its website. Google said that Clairmont Institute’s advertisement of the gala dinner honoring Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on May 11th in Los Angeles is in contravention of Google’s “race and ethnicity in personalized advertising.”
After several exchanges with Google officials, the think tank was told to remove the essay on multiculturalism from the internet. Incidents such as these cast doubt in the minds of those who believed big tech is working against conservatives.
“This is news to us. The Claremont Institute has spent forty years teaching all who are willing to listen that the meaning of the proposition that all human beings are created equal is the central, animating principle of American political life,” wrote Ryan Williams, President of the Claremont Institute on the American Mind website.
The think tank published an essay titled “Defend America – Defeat Multiculturalism.” This essay was the reason Google banned Claremont Institute. After nearly two hours of conversations with Google, the officials of the tech giant clarified that the essay must be removed from the internet and there is no scope for considering any more appeals. Google made it very clear that the Claremont Institute can only advertise with them if the essay is removed.
“What Google is really doing (like Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms) is policing the terms of American political debate to advance acceptable establishment ideology. In First Amendment parlance, Google is in the viewpoint discrimination business, and its target is heresies like ours against the prevailing orthodoxies of our time,” wrote Ryan Williams.
Founded in 1979, Claremont Institute is a highly respected think tank. Accusing such an organization of publishing racially or ethnically oriented work is surprising. Several notable personalities such as the radio host Mark Levin, columnist Ross Douthat, Ben Shapiro, Andrew Breitbart, TV personality Guy Benson, James O’Keefe, Human Events editor Raheem Kassam, Fox News host Laura Ingraham, former National Security Adviser Michael Anton are all alumni of Claremont Institute.
This attack on conservatives by Google coincides with the recent bans imposed by Facebook and Instagram on several conservatives such as Alex Jones, Laura Loomer and more. Such repeated attacks cripple conservative voices over other voices from appearing on the internet and seems to hint a strong case of the “big tech” companies’ involvement in influencing in the political landscape.
