Google, censorship and The Rockall Times

Search engine world superpower Google really has got itself into a bit of a two-and-eight recently over its foray into the Chinese market, and is currently trying to convince an unimpressed public that it really hasn't got its chops wrapped round Beijing's fat spam javelin in the hope that swallowing a mouthful of yellow jizz will further line its bulging wallet.

Well, Google has always prided itself on its hippy sensibilities, so it was a bit of a shame when it recently pulled this answer to a query on its support centre:

This came as a bit of a shock to us and those readers who had, quite correctly, spotted that Google has in fact been censoring The Rockall Times for over two years.

First up, type "Rockall" into Google and hit a web search (safesearch off, natch). Unsurprisingly, the North Atlantic's finest tops the search list, but right under the url is the line: "Issue includes society, sex, arts, science, politics and logic." This used to read: "There's fuc*k all on Rockall," and so forth, but was rewritten by someone down at Google who should have at least checked to see that the section is in fact called "Yeast Logic".

Now try "Rockall" or "The Rockall Times" in a news search. Nothing, not even when we triumphantly declared last year our charity assault on the sacred islet. Conclusion? We have been cast out of Google news while lesser satire operations continue to enjoy Google's patronage.

The upshot is this: Google has begun the process of appointing itself web censor. No problem, you might say — its Google search engine is its own and it can do what it damn well pleases. This is true, as long as Google resists the temptation to bang on about the "democracy of the web" and claiming it does not manipulate search results by hand.

In conclusion — enjoy your Red Chinese facial, spawn of Satan. We hope it's worth it.