Google’s dominant position in the ad market allows it to severely financially punish websites it disagrees with, as the example of LifeSiteNews demonstrates.
This form of censorship follows the pattern of others imposed by Google and its platforms like YouTube: the targets of bans and deplatforming are removed without proper explanation, and with almost no recourse.
LifeSiteNews, that has been banned from Google Ads, Google Ad servers, Google News and Google Discover, is therefore left to assume that the likely cause was its exploration of what its author Gualberto Garcia Jones termed the morality, legality and science behind the coronavirus vaccines.
The site informed the Media Research Center (MRC) about this censorship incident on Tuesday, revealing that Google told them LifeSiteNews was banned from a host of its services for “dangerous or derogatory content” – however, citing only one example of such content.
It was an article published in early February featuring an interview with Dr. David Martin, a former University of Virginia professor, who discussed mRNA-based coronavirus vaccines and provided details about the difference between vaccination and gene therapy.
LifeSiteNews says that Google did not state that the article contained factual errors, but instead only that the giant “forbids ‘content from any site that contradicts or runs contrary to scientific or medical consensus and evidence-based best practices’.”
But the site – that said the financial consequences of the ban on its business are massive – also noted that if Google’s reasoning on medical and scientific matters were to become universally adopted, it would “stagnate scientific consensus by crippling open debate.”
LifeSiteNews, which is said to be only one of Google’s targets among outlets with a pro-life editorial policy, faced censorship from the giant in the past as well, having its YouTube channel deleted, thus losing 300,000 subscribers.
In his email to the MRC, Jones said that the site had all its YouTube videos backed up, but that YouTube’s move severed communication with hundreds of thousands of followers.
No doubt for these and similar reasons, LifeSiteNews decided to sign a letter that the MRC is sending to all 50 US state attorneys, urging them to launch an investigation into Google, Facebook and others and the ways these massive corporations have monopolized the market.
The letter further accuses them of “using their influence to collect user data, suppress content, and silence those who voice ideas and beliefs counter to their own.”
