Censorship: "NO PASARÁN" VS BLOGGER ET AL.

Today is a three-month anniversary: it has been exactly 3 months since one of the blogosphere's oldest blogs still in existence was suddenly and without warning eviscerated by Google. (Please make sure you read the paragraph in bold at the very bottom of this post…)

After 21 years, the blog No Pasarán was unceremoniously locked, banned, removed, and cancelled by a member of Google's Blogger crew, without the courtesy of giving the slightest explanation why. Not just one single (allegedly) offending post reset to "draft status", mind you, but between 14,000 and 15,000 posts — 21 years' worth of patient writing and thorough reporting — removed and destroyed once and for all. 

As I wrote in the latest of my four letters (so far) to Google CEO Sundar Pichai in California,

Your cavalier treatment of my blog feels like taking one's car to a garage — a trustworthy garage that one has been a faithful customer to for two decades — only to have the head of the garage (or, rather, some unsupervised low-level mechanic) call back later and say, "No, we cannot repair the car and not only that, we are going to confiscate said vehicle and sell it off at auction." 

Thank you to all who have taken an interest in the censure of No Pasarán. 

As the valiant Trump White House fearlessly widens the fight to engage with the many enemies of the right, one after the other (which are really enemies of Western civilization), throughout the years and the decades — from the mainstream media and the deep state to PBS and the Smithsonian — my hope is that right-minded people and, indeed, American citizens of all stripes will join in fighting against what seems to be a primary example of yet another persistent foe, the unreconstructed leftist leaders of the Silicon Valley behemoths.

If Google will do this against a relatively minor blog, whose heyday was admittedly in the early 20th century era of the blogosphere, then who will be next? (See the post "Bill Maher suggests left-wing censorship is dead — except it isn't when leftists gratuitously destroy a blog of 20+ years and 14,000 posts").

Fight!

Fight!

Fight!

Below is my brief against Google, which owns and services Blogger:

1. On May 28, Blogger without notice or explanation CENSORED No Pasarán and de-platformed the 21-year-old blog.

2. Blogger stated that No Pasarán "was flagged to us for review. We have determined that it violates our … Misleading Content Policy." Yet Blogger has never provided posts or language to example a single offense.

3. Further after 21 years — TWENTY-ONE YEARS — and over 14,000 posts, Blogger asks us to believe only now has it suddenly discovered violations of its community guidelines (or, for that matter, any rules of common courtesy whatsoever) by No Pasarán, an exemplary Netizen. This is a ridiculous and insupportable fiction. 

It is simply not credible.

4. Blogger has responded — in the briefest of responses — to subsequent appeals with a single boilerplate reply or two signed by a rotation of fictitious "dedicated" customer "specialists" (some of who may be younger than the blog itself), at one point suggesting No Pasarán could pursue an appeal of Blogger's rejection of the previous appeal, that is, pursue an endless loop of appeals to rejected appeals.

5. No Pasarán has been given no opportunities to confront the complainant(s), to know, much less address, any specific complaint(s) or offense(s), or to redress any valid offense.

6. Blogger offers no resolution process to undo its censure of No Pasarán, giving the lie to its bad faith appeal process.

7. No Pasarán's position is simple. It knows of no violation(s) committed. It DEMANDS reinstatement consistent with Blogger's own service pledges to its customers (e.g., "What you can expect from us").  See "the trusted garage" simile at the beginning of this post; I fully understand, and I have no bones with, the fact that in the United States the First Amendment cannot be used against private companies, only against governments on various levels.  But surely Google's injurious ban, along with its unwarranted destruction of 14,000 posts, is — at the very least — a breach of good faith and fair dealing.

8. To the average reader, both within the U.S. and abroad, Google's sudden and unwarranted de-platforming of No Pasarán looks like nothing more than political censorship; nothing more than a member of the (in?)famously left-leaning member of Silicon Valley gratuitously censoring and unduly pestering a conservative citizen to the utmost of their ability. 

Thank you for your interest and support. Please check back at Le Monde Watch for developments. If you would like to heed Donald Trump's words at Butler — Fight! Fight! FIght! — and join the fight to reinstate No Pasarán, please contact me directly at eriksvane@aol.com.

DEAR READERS: Help spread the word! Sample text at the present link that can be used as inspiration for a letter or email to friends and family or various "influencers," whether politicians, reporters, podcasters, bloggers (!), or anyone with an interest.

More details here: 
• Google: It Is Time to Restore a Blog — and its 14,000 Posts — That You Have Harbored Without Problems for Over Two Decades
• Bill Maher suggests left-wing censorship is dead — except it isn't when leftists gratuitously destroy a blog of 20 years and 14,000 posts
• Google's Blogger Ban of "No Pasarán" — Six Weeks After the Behemoth Eviscerated the Conservative Blog…
• The Blog "No Pasarán" Has Been Locked and Removed; Google: Put an End to the Censorship