Google is in the news. They are demonetizing and de-platforming the haters. And who are the haters? Whoever they say they are. And so is PayPal and Patreon and GoFundMe and on a less important front so is Facebook, Twitter and all the other leftists who are still smarting over Trump’s win. If you make money from monetizing your website through Google advertising then this can be a big deal. If you have a YouTube channel you could find a stream of income that you’ve depended on shut off. And it’s not something you can appeal. If they shut you down, that’s it.
I’ve been reading on a few sites that alternative sources for monetizing and funding are coming into being. For instance a payment site to replace Patreon ( amusingly named Hatreon) now exists. Stripe and Square perform similarly to PayPal but haven’t been banning rightwingers (yet). WeSearchr and Counter.Fund also provide crowdsourcing to the right. Gab provides a Twitter alternative.
So, problem solved? Probably not. Google is a behemoth of a company that controls the lion’s share of internet advertising. They also dominate the search business. And this is the way to control what gets seen and what doesn’t. If they think your site is guilty of thoughtcrime all they have to do is make it invisible and it will dry up and wither away. That is a big problem. There are other search engines like Brave and DuckDuckGo and, and, and … But most people google things they’re looking for. What’s a deplorable to do?
Well, mostly wait. We should start using all the alternatives because we need to make a start. But don’t fool yourself into thinking you can move a mountain with a teaspoon overnight. There’s no magic bullet for 100 years of ignoring the problem. These institutions are entrenched and they don’t like you and they want you to go away (meaning drop dead).
One thing we can and should do is network. Find like-minded folks and communicate and support each other. If they sell stuff, look at it. If it’s as good or even almost as good as stuff from the pod people buy it instead. And when you do buy from them let them know why. And if you have stuff for them to buy let them know and maybe they will. Support these alternative institutions and spread the word. Put links on your site if you find something good.
And it’s not all gloom and doom. Look at the Dragon Awards. Only two years running and already it is a fantastic alternative to voting in the fully converged Hugo Awards. I used to waste money voting in that thing. And that money was then spent on feeding SJWs at the WorldCon. Instead I can vote in the Dragon Awards for free and have a much greater impact. And that is a direct result of the puppies (sad and rabid) standing up to the pod people and saying we don’t believe you and we’ll go our own way.
So, there are cracks in the wall. And if you apply pressure at these weak points damage can be done. And don’t forget, Trump isn’t a friend of Silicon Valley. They don’t like him and he doesn’t like them. If he sics the anti-trust dogs on them Google will grovel pretty quickly. It will be interesting to see if the investigation into search algorithm tampering is resurrected.
So be of good cheer and go out and deplore with a smile on your face and a song in your heart. Somewhere out there in the bowels of Google the pod people are beginning to fear you.