Matrix Posted August 15, 2019 Share Posted August 15, 2019 Documents released by whistleblower Zachary Vorhies suggests that Google actively blocked hundreds of sites, including TorrentFreak, from its Google Now service. The blocklist doesn't provide a specific reason for the blockade, but other sites are flagged for having a high user block rate or for peddling hoax stories. Vorhies has shared the documents with the US Department of Justice. At TorrentFreak, we have written hundreds of articles about website blocking and censorship. Today, we’re featured in one ourselves. Leaked Google documents reveal that TorrentFreak.com shows up in one of Google’s previously unknown blocklists, which actively hides our domain from the Google Now service. Google Now was a Google search feature that presented users with informational cards, to provide users with more details on subjects of interest to them. While the brand no longer exists, the feature is still present in the Google Android app and its feed. The controversial blocklist is part of a treasure trove of files that were leaked by whistleblower Zachary Vorhies, who shared them with Project Veritas. The entire collection of files uncovers many previously unknown policies and actions from Google. “These documents were available to every single employee within the company that was full-time. And so as a fulltime employee at the company, I just searched for some keywords and these documents started to pop up,” Vorhies said. The Google Now blocklist, which is available here, contains nearly 500 domain names. The file starts with APKMirror, eBay and some Google sites, and then continues with several torrent related sites including The Pirate Bay, RARBG and EZTV, as well as some that no longer exist. TorrentFreak.com is grouped in with the torrent sites. While the list doesn’t give a reason for the block, it appears that it’s related to the subject of piracy. Torrent blocks The list then continues with sites that are tagged due to having a “high user block rate.” These include quite a few conservative websites. As the description suggests, they may have been filtered because a lot of users block these sites. Further down the list, there are also a dozen sites that are supposedly “flagged for peddling hoax stories.” High user block rate This isn’t the first Google leak story by Project Veritas. The outlet previously published internal Google documents about what it described as “algorithmic unfairness.” Google obviously wasn’t happy with the leaks. The company reportedly sent a threatening letter to Vorhies after it uncovered his identity, and the San Fransisco police later visited the Google insider for a “mental health” check. The turn of events triggered Vorhies to release the documents in public and step out of the shadows. In addition to sharing the information publicly, he also sent the data dump to the US Department of Justice’s antitrust division. TorrentFreak is not able to independently verify the authenticity of the blocklist or any of the other materials that were leaked. It’s also not clear whether the list is up-to-date and still actively used. We reached out to a Google spokesperson to find out more. including why our site appears on this list, but at the time of writing, we have yet to hear back. A full copy of all the leaked files, which also contains other documents about censorship, hiring practices, and psychological research, is accessible via Project Veritas. The site also published a detailed video interview with the whistleblower. VIEW: Original Article. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Documents released by whistleblower Zachary Vorhies suggests that Google actively blocked hundreds of sites, including TorrentFreak, from its Google Now service. The blocklist doesn't provide a specific reason for the blockade, but other sites are flagged for having a high user block rate or for peddling hoax stories. Vorhies has shared the documents with the US Department of Justice. At TorrentFreak, we have written hundreds of articles about website blocking and censorship. Today, we’re featured in one ourselves. Leaked Google documents reveal that TorrentFreak.com shows up in one of Google’s previously unknown blocklists, which actively hides our domain from the Google Now service. Google Now was a Google search feature that presented users with informational cards, to provide users with more details on subjects of interest to them. While the brand no longer exists, the feature is still present in the Google Android app and its feed. The controversial blocklist is part of a treasure trove of files that were leaked by whistleblower Zachary Vorhies, who shared them with Project Veritas. The entire collection of files uncovers many previously unknown policies and actions from Google. “These documents were available to every single employee within the company that was full-time. And so as a fulltime employee at the company, I just searched for some keywords and these documents started to pop up,” Vorhies said. The Google Now blocklist, which is available here, contains nearly 500 domain names. The file starts with APKMirror, eBay and some Google sites, and then continues with several torrent related sites including The Pirate Bay, RARBG and EZTV, as well as some that no longer exist. TorrentFreak.com is grouped in with the torrent sites. While the list doesn’t give a reason for the block, it appears that it’s related to the subject of piracy. Torrent blocks The list then continues with sites that are tagged due to having a “high user block rate.” These include quite a few conservative websites. As the description suggests, they may have been filtered because a lot of users block these sites. Further down the list, there are also a dozen sites that are supposedly “flagged for peddling hoax stories.” High user block rate This isn’t the first Google leak story by Project Veritas. The outlet previously published internal Google documents about what it described as “algorithmic unfairness.” Google obviously wasn’t happy with the leaks. The company reportedly sent a threatening letter to Vorhies after it uncovered his identity, and the San Fransisco police later visited the Google insider for a “mental health” check. The turn of events triggered Vorhies to release the documents in public and step out of the shadows. In addition to sharing the information publicly, he also sent the data dump to the US Department of Justice’s antitrust division. TorrentFreak is not able to independently verify the authenticity of the blocklist or any of the other materials that were leaked. It’s also not clear whether the list is up-to-date and still actively used. We reached out to a Google spokesperson to find out more. including why our site appears on this list, but at the time of writing, we have yet to hear back. A full copy of all the leaked files, which also contains other documents about censorship, hiring practices, and psychological research, is accessible via Project Veritas. The site also published a detailed video interview with the whistleblower.
rasbridge Posted August 15, 2019 Share Posted August 15, 2019 Robert Epstein: "Google's leaders have been perjuring themselves before Congress" source: https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/08/15/robert-epstein-googles-leaders-have-been-perjuring-themselves-before-congress/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Disco Bob Posted August 15, 2019 Share Posted August 15, 2019 Project Veritas i have to say are good at undercover work and no one is safe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LOQUILLO Posted August 15, 2019 Share Posted August 15, 2019 This news is not true, because I can do a search with Google and I can get these sites as results Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted August 15, 2019 Share Posted August 15, 2019 Speaking Of google Here is a story you want never read on TorrentFreak !!! TorrentFreak Owner/Editor Lennart Renkema PhD Received Funding From Google & Bittorrent Friendly VPN Google funded Lennart Renkema’s last paper. Let’s just get right to the point shall we? TorrentFreak is not a semi-biased news source that reports sympathetically on piracy. If you accept the framework of academic policy washing laid out in Merchants of Doubt, TorrentFreak operates as a public policy arm of Google and other commercial interests that profit from piracy. Multiple sources report that Ernesto Van Der Zar is Lennart Renkema PhD. Renkema is also the co-author of “Copy Culture in U.S. and Germany.” It was funded with a grant from Google. But that’s nothing. It gets much uglier if you dig deeper. Shall we? More disturbing is Renkema’s links to London Trust Media. LTM operates a VPN under the brand name Private Internet Access. Private Internet Access is a VPN that touts itself as bittorrent friendly. In other words instead of paying musicians for their work you just pay Private Internet Access and they hide your identity. In this way LTM/PIA profits from piracy while sharing nothing with the artist. Ernesto/Renkema admits PIA is Torrentfreak’s main sponsor. Ernesto/Renkema clearly financially benefits from this sponsorship. Torrentfreak also writes glowing reviews of PIAs service. A deep search of the web shows no other employment for Renkema. Rick Falkvinge is also a writer at Torrentfreak. Until we exposed it Rick Falkvinge (yes the guy who suggested child pornography be legalized) was listed as the Chief Privacy Officer at Private Internet Access. As a result one could plausibly argue that Torrentfreak is really just an arm of Private Internet Access/London Trust Media. So let’s take a closer look at Private Internet Access/London Trust Media. Official 2014 tax documents show an address in a mini industrial park in Michigan. Yet in 2016 Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs had no such company registered in the state of Michigan. This would seem to be a violation of state law. Back in 2016 we did some research on other companies listed as doing business at that address: World Fertility Experts an offshore fertility clinic. Flip it Friday a $50 dollar a month online course on how to flip houses. My Diploma: Sure. Seems perfectly legit. GS Media Looks to be a penny stock promoter. Again no business records in Michigan state database. They come up in this interesting article here http://www.goodetrades.com/2012/06/global-gaming-network-gbgm-is-the-pump-and-dump-du-jour/ KlearGear: Then of course there is KlearGear. You got to read this one. http://www.mlive.com/business/west-michigan/index.ssf/2013/11/kleargear_grandville.html The Daily Scam which reports daily on internet scams reports on a business located at this address. http://www.thedailyscam.com/december-30-2015/ So think about it folks. Is Torrentfreak really what it claims to be? Is Lennart Renkema simply a reporter? Or is he part of a bigger profit oriented endeavor? The online publication eCommerceTimes, in 2009, described "Ernesto" as the pseudonym of Lennart Renkema, owner of TorrentFreak. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TorrentFreak Source So according Dr. David C Lowery who writes songs for Cracker Torrent freak profit from piracy and are no better than any of the other sites that Google removes they just use being a news site as a shied to protect them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted August 16, 2019 Share Posted August 16, 2019 2 hours ago, LOQUILLO said: This news is not true, because I can do a search with Google and I can get these sites as results It don't have nothing to do with Google Desktop search it has to do with Google Play search . And like Torrent Freak you have to take what Project Veritas says with a grain of salt because what they report is not always factual and what TF reported is still pending. Factual Reporting: MIXED Often his information is debunked, but it is too late as the information has already been watched by thousands or more. See RationalWiki for more on James O’Keefe. (11/16/2016) Updated (D. Van Zandt 4/26/2017) https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/project-veritas/ If you read deep into O’Keefe's history you will see that if not for him using Google's own YouTube he would never been famous he started out there so he got money / paid from Google too and hes not to be token too serious .He entraps people into to saying things regardless if it's the truth or fiction.. He's no different than a salesman that talks people into buying something they really didn't want , so they return it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator DKT27 Posted August 20, 2019 Administrator Share Posted August 20, 2019 On 8/16/2019 at 5:07 AM, steven36 said: Concerning. But that does not take away the facts like, they are among the best in reporting the news about filesharing, meaning they are still doing some good work and second, most media houses have questionable background and sponsorship. The background does look shady and the owner should come out in open about it. Having said, should we rely on a single source to claim the original ownership of the site there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted August 20, 2019 Share Posted August 20, 2019 15 minutes ago, DKT27 said: Concerning. But that does not take away the facts like, they are among the best in reporting the news about filesharing, meaning they are still doing some good work and second, most media houses have questionable background and sponsorship. The background does look shady and the owner should come out in open about it. Having said, I disagree that we should rely on a single source to claim the original ownership of the site there. I disagree with them being the best , the founder of this site nsane and Lite posted on a better ffilesharing news site before they even started this site than TF , what i do agree with TF is the only filesharing news site left that still post this news because it's not popular as it use to be back when they was lots of p2p programs .It very a very niche news subject but i seen people over on reddit.com get jumped on in some of the filesharing subs for posting there stories for being non factual and scarce mongering news . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator DKT27 Posted August 20, 2019 Administrator Share Posted August 20, 2019 3 minutes ago, steven36 said: I disagree with them being the best , the fonder of this site nsane and Lite posted on a better ffilesharing news site before they even started this site than TF , what i do agree with TF is the only filesharing news site left that still post this news because it's not popular as it use to be back when they was lots of p2p programs .It very a very niche news subject but i seen people over on reddit.com get jumped on in some of the filesharing subs for posting there stories for being non factual and scarce mongering news . I would like you to mention the name of the site. I am trying to know if I know or remember it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted August 20, 2019 Share Posted August 20, 2019 18 minutes ago, DKT27 said: I would like you to mention the name of the site. I am trying to know if I know or remember it. filesharingtalk.com was the one they was on , also Slyck.com and zeropaid was good all these sites was around before TF , the 1st 2 forums still online they just dont update the news no more and zeropaid is gone now. If you been a member here along time you can see some the rules they use to have here were the same as filesharingtalk.com like using hide referrer sites and things . You can learn a lot about how this came to be if you know were to look on that site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator DKT27 Posted August 20, 2019 Administrator Share Posted August 20, 2019 6 minutes ago, steven36 said: filesharingtalk.com was the one they was on , also Slyck.com and zeropaid was good all these sites was around before TF , the 1st 2 forums still online they just dont update the news no more and zeropaid is gone now. Interesting. I might or might not have heard about them. Seems that they might be active when I joined here but cannot remember much about them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steven36 Posted August 20, 2019 Share Posted August 20, 2019 21 minutes ago, DKT27 said: Interesting. I might or might not have heard about them. Seems that they might be active when I joined here but cannot remember much about them. Back years ago we didn't have warez fourms like we do now all of us used p2p we all hung out on those sites i said above and the guys who made this site were involved in removing spyware from the Kazaa p2p clients they sort kept it alive K++ was bundled by nsane that's for sure and Lite i think that were his name came from Kazaa Lite you have ask him ?.They really good guys that helped people from getting infected with spyware, https://www.nsanedown.com/?request=329670 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator DKT27 Posted August 20, 2019 Administrator Share Posted August 20, 2019 16 minutes ago, steven36 said: Back years ago we didn't have warez fourms like we do now all of us used p2p we all hung out on those sites i said above and the guys who made this site were involved in removing spyware from the Kazaa p2p clients they sort kept it alive K++ was bundled by nsane that's for sure and Lite i think that were his name came from Kazaa Lite you have ask him ?.They really good guys that helped people from getting infected with spyware, https://www.nsanedown.com/?request=329670 That story I know. Well, I knew some of it and only recently came to know more about it. I need Matt to get that file reuploaded though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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