Townhall Finance
Google Tells Conservative News Website to Take a Hike
Michael Schaus
May 09, 2014

The Conservative oriented website dedicated to aggregating news from around the world-wide-interwebs, Weasel Zippers, has just lost its primary funding source because… Well… It’s kinda hard to say. According to the site, Google AdSense (an add generator produced by the infamously liberal corporation in Silicon Valley) has cancelled its agreement with the website because of apparent violations to their terms of use.

According to Google, the conservative news site has failed to produce an adequate amount of “original content” to continue utilizing the internet advertising tool provided by Google. Of course, the claim seems mildly curious given the fact that news aggregators around the world use AdSense for their primary, or supplemental, income.

Naturally, Weasel Zippers has attempted to fight back… But, really, what can they do? Despite providing commentary, manual aggregation of news stories, and original analysis, Google has determined that the site is out of compliance with their overly vague requirements for terms of use. Google, in all fairness, has said the site was not “singled out” for its politics… Kinda like 501(c)4 conservative groups. (Ahem… Sarcasm font?) And, let’s face it, this wouldn’t be Google’s first venture into political discrimination:

In fact, Google was the subject of criticism and ridicule several years ago when they decided to “take a stand” against guns by altering their AdSense agreements and web-search algorithms to exclude tools of self-defense. In their “prohibited” content section any website that sells or advertises “weapons or ammunition (e.g., firearms, firearm components, fighting knives, or stun guns)”… Right. Because selling a tool that is enumerated as a “right” under America’s founding document is clearly antithetical to good business practices...

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