25 Aprile 2022 Pubblicato da Marco Tosatti

Marco Tosatti

Dear friends and enemies of Stilum Curiae, the news and the event are from some time ago, but only now is there is a moment to take a breath to publish it. Stilum Curiae has reached and exceeded twenty-nine million views, since October 2016, the official start of the blog’s activity, certified by Word Press. Over 155,000 comments were moderated and approved. The average daily number of visits is over 21 thousand, as you can see from the image below; this obviously in the first months of the year.

A big thank you to the readers, to those who support our work, to the collaborators and translators. The burden of commitment particularly in recent years and months has become heavier, but we will try to continue, also because it does not seem that the situation, from a point of view of freedom and information, is improving, on the contrary. As already mentioned, our site is subject to attacks, display restrictions on social media, and – with regard to information on the pandemic, demonetization by Google, which now, as you can read below, in a passage taken from Byoblu, will also expand to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Of course, for Stilum these are tiny figures, but they are used for expenses. Thank you again for your faithfulness, with the prayer not to “personalize” your comments towards other commentators, and so we go on…

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Often the war between Russia and Ukraine is portrayed in the West as the attack of an authoritarian regime against freedom and democracies. Is it a representation corresponding to reality? Can we really consider ourselves a model of freedom and democracy for the rest of the world?

This presumption could collapse like a house of cards by observing how in the West certain freedoms can be administered or not depending on what is decided by the board of directors of the multinational company on duty.

Google’s latest warning

Here is the latest message that, for example, the American company Google has sent to all those who use the advertising service for their AdSense websites. “Dear publisher, because of the war in Ukraine, we will pause the monetization of content aimed at exploiting, ignoring or justifying the war.”

In practice, Google announces its intention to block any possibility of earning for all those websites that do not respect these principles. But what does it mean according to Google to “exploit, ignore or justify war”?

The multinational itself explains this in the email, providing some concrete examples: “This suspension of monetization concerns, by way of example, statements that victims are responsible for their own tragedy or similar statements condemning victims, for example statements that Ukraine is committing genocide or is deliberately attacking its own citizens.” Google’s stance thus appears clearly biased towards one of the two parties involved, Ukraine, and thus risks polluting the free debate on the conflict as well as the essence of freedom of expression and information. Why?

Google replaces international court

Take, for example, the events in Bucha. According to Google’s new rules, it would no longer be allowed to ask questions about why the Ukrainian police published a video during a patrol of the streets of that locality, immediately after the liberation from the Russians, without showing any corpse on the street. Questions that have been raised by journalists of undoubted caliber such as Toni Capuozzo and Fausto Biloslavo.

As we have also written about Byoblu, for similar episodes caution is necessary, but above all it is necessary to rely on independent investigations. Evidently Google thinks it can replace an international court, the only body appointed by law to recognize the responsibility for any massacres.

With this new policy, however, Google will not only intervene in controversial episodes, such as Bucha, but will also rewrite history. If it is forbidden to describe the mass killings carried out by Ukrainians then it becomes impossible to describe the activities of the Azov battalion, the well-known neo-Nazi unit inserted into the Kiev National Guard. According to the OSCE and Amnesty International, this Ukrainian unit was found guilty of mass killings, concealment of corpses and torture. With the new policy, Google thus prohibits citing international reports.

Google monetizes content that praises neo-Nazis

At the same time, however, Google itself authorizes banner ads on those sites where the role of Ukrainian neo-Nazis is minimized or even their deeds are praised. Google advertising is in fact present and active on the Huffington Post article entitled: “Why Ukraine also uses Nazis to defend itself but is not Nazi,” where it tries to clean up the image of the department.

The same Google advertisement is then visible in the article of il Foglio signed by Giuliano Ferrara entitled: “Now that it is about to succumb, the Azov battalion deserves only respect.” In short, where neo-Nazis are praised, Google allows you to earn money.

Advertising also on child soldiers

It does not end here, because in spite of the much-proclaimed policies against hatred and violence, the American multinational allows advertising where the use of child soldiers is praised. On Italian media which enthusiastically shows the photo of a Ukrainian girl with a rifle and lollipop for Google advertising. A mechanism that is also repeated in foreign media such as the Daily Mail.

In short, for Google there can be no doubt about the conflict, but it is legitimate to praise neo-Nazi criminals and approve the use of children in war. Recall that already in the past Google has imposed its policies in a completely pretentious way by blocking advertisements on sites without legitimate reasons, as in the case of Byoblu. The American multinational thus places itself in the role of sovereign legibus solutus, which dispenses freedoms at will, with the only difference that unlike the monarchs of the past it does not repress dissent with physical violence, but can simply extinguish it. In the West we are all free, to shout alone in a closed room, without anyone hearing us.

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Tag: 29, milion

Categoria: Generale