Search engine giant Google has been accused of restricting political debate by a new political party campaigning for the legalisation of marijuana.
The Hemp Party, which will field Senate candidates in the federal election, is furious that Google has blocked the party from using a marijuana leaf logo or the word opium in its advertisements.
“This is censorship by stealth,” James Moylan, the Hemp Party’s national campaign director, told Crikey. “We’re not selling stoner gear — we’re engaging in serious political lobbying on a serious issue.”
Moylan argues Google’s approach limits the discussion of drug law reform and violates the implied constitutional right to freedom of political communication. He’s threatening to take on the internet behemoth in a Castle-style legal challenge after the federal election. “It’s really unreasonable behaviour,” he said. “No Australian company would behave in this arbitrary and bloody-minded way.”
The Hemp Party’s ads and logo, which Google has banned
Google AdWords — which sells sponsored links on Google — informed the party yesterday that an ad containing the word opium had been disapproved because it violated Google’s Illegal Drugs and Psychoactive Substances policy. The company explained its decision in an email yesterday:
According to Moylan, Google previously banned a Hemp Party ad featuring the party’s registered logo because it contains an image of a marijuana leaf.
Similar issues are likely to flare up repeatedly in coming years as activist groups and political parties become increasingly reliant on online platforms such as Google, Twitter and Facebook to spread their message.
Crikey reported yesterday that the Facebook page for protest group Burger Off, which is campaigning against the construction of a McDonald’s restaurant in Melbourne’s Dandenong Ranges, had been censored. Facebook told the group a post had been removed because it contained “hateful language” — an argument the group denies.
The group also claims Facebook pulled down other entries and threatened to block an administrator for calling on supporters to post comments on McDonald’s US and Australian Facebook pages.
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We must stop this scourge of natural remedy pain relief.
I am not going to engage in the debate about if google is allowed to do this, but clearly they are. It is their ad platform, and they can’t make an exception. It just isn’t feasible or everyone would want it.
I am more concerned about the fact that they were going to use that as an ad. They should be thanking google, because they would have just wasted their own time and money. That is a poorly written ad; if they want to be taken seriously they should start by writing better ads.
Even if someone did agree with the ad message, I don’t see a call to action or anything that would give someone an intensive to even click on the link.
Quote: “No Australian company would behave in this arbitrary and bloody-minded way.”
Well, not unless you were, say, criticising one of their advertisers of a high profile, like maybe, Coca Cola, for perhaps, undermining a recycling programme that actually would benefit the community.
Christopher. I wrote the ad you are so critical of.
Ouch! Dang that smarts.
I thought the ad highlighted nicely both the lunacy of the current law and the arguments used to support it.
But I am always open to criticism and suggestions. I’l tell you what: If you or any Crikey reader can propose a better advertisement then we will run it (or try to run it) on Google.
And I am happy to go with the one that gets general approval (not just ours).
There are some restrictions though: the url at the bottom remains the same, the top header line has to contain no more than 30 characters (including spaces) and the body text has to contain no more than 64 characters (including spaces).
JiMM
Ever since these InterTube thingies became ubiquitous, I have been puzzled as to why no-one (else) seems aware that Google has supra national reach & power to do whatever it wants.
It has become the heroin of the 21stC, almost everyone so utterly dependent upon it that they’ll cease normal brain function rather than be cut off.