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[Update: Blog is open again] Google Shuts Down Popular Blogger John Hempton After Publishing Controv
The Business Insider ^ | 1/3/10 | Joe Weisenthal

Posted on 01/03/2010 8:40:10 PM PST by FromLori

Update: Hempton's blog is now back.

Original post: On January 2nd, financial blogger extaordinaire John Hempton published a long post with the inflammatory title: "A dark privatised social security story: Astarra, the missing money and how examining a fund manager owned by Joe Biden’s family led to substantial regulatory action in Australia."

I can read it right now in my Google reader, but if you want check it out, you're out of luck.

Suddenly Hempton's blog -- which uses Google's blog platform Blogger -- is labeled as spam and unavailable.

The discovery was made by Felix Salmon, who suspects that someone wants to silence Hempton, and is using Google's report spam feature to silence Hempton's blog.

Whatever the reason is, it's embarrassing that a blog like Hempton's can so easily get snagged, particularly considering the quality of its content and the multitude of inbound links from high profile sites, as Salmon notes.

Hopefully this will be corrected soon, but for an average person, it's not always easy to rectify Google's mistakes.

This is another risk of using Google's cloud -- something we recently discovered when our email was hacked -- and if you're a blogger who publishes content that may make people angry, it's probably worth getting your own domain and hosting setup.

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: blogger; freedomofspeech; google
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Google no surprise they backed BO
1 posted on 01/03/2010 8:40:11 PM PST by FromLori
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To: FromLori

The url works; the blog is available. ( http://brontecapital.blogspot.com )


2 posted on 01/03/2010 8:48:56 PM PST by Tax Government (Democrats: dealers in economic crack.)
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To: FromLori
... it's embarrassing that a blog like Hempton's can so easily get snagged, ...

I don't understand why anyone who thinks they have anything important to say, and that would be just about everyone writing on the 'net, would use google, you tube, ebay or any other leftist element of the internet.

3 posted on 01/03/2010 8:50:39 PM PST by RobinOfKingston (Democrats, the party of evil. Republicans, the party of stupid.)
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To: FromLori

Not surprised at all.

I personally had e-mails suppressed by Yahoo/AT&T during the Sarah Palin e-mail episode.

I had done a Technorati Search and posted the search entry and resulting screen capture. When I tried to send the screen capture to a blogger it failed. I tried twice and then sent it through my business e-mail account and it went fine.

Several days later I got a notification that my e-mail was being “held for testing”. When I responded, I got no return e-mail.

Months later my local ISP trace the problem to the point where it connected to AT&T/Yahoo. It was a Yahoo e-mail address that I attempted to send the message to.

Welcome to the brave new world.


4 posted on 01/03/2010 8:51:46 PM PST by Texas Fossil (Government, even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.)
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To: FromLori

Not necessarily Google. Non-Google President Obama supporters are the more likely culprit. If enough people label the website as spam on anti-spam websites or through anti-spam programs, the website will be blocked by anti-spam programs, etc. Or the website might really have a ton of spam advertisements. Or it could be somebody at Google.


5 posted on 01/03/2010 8:51:49 PM PST by DrGunsforHands
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To: FromLori

The Business Insider is great. Off topic, while I was reading the article I found a link in the article about Buss Insider’s Nigerian Facebook Scam..even the full conversation between the Nigerian who fessed up in the end. Pure entertainment.


6 posted on 01/03/2010 8:52:23 PM PST by max americana
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To: DrGunsforHands

Yep, could be the handiwork of Netroots. They are famous for such nonsense.

Totally unscrupulous.


7 posted on 01/03/2010 8:53:16 PM PST by Texas Fossil (Government, even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.)
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To: Tax Government

Yes now it does but it was shut down for a while

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2010/01/03/googles-evil-policy-on-shutting-down-blogs/


8 posted on 01/03/2010 8:53:36 PM PST by FromLori (FromLori)
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To: max americana
I know I find some of the craziest things on that site lol
9 posted on 01/03/2010 8:55:21 PM PST by FromLori (FromLori)
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To: FromLori

Just amazing that a company would interfere like Google does. It’s going to probably cost them big time in the end.


10 posted on 01/03/2010 8:57:29 PM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
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To: FromLori

Thanks for the link.

The Nigerian scammer even apologized to “Evan” after he got embarrassed. “Evan”’s sarcasm and comedic timing were hilarious.


11 posted on 01/03/2010 8:59:42 PM PST by max americana
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To: RobinOfKingston

Because Google is the best. It has become synonymous with searching for things on the internet because it does the job better than the other guys.


12 posted on 01/03/2010 9:02:35 PM PST by DrGunsforHands
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To: DrGunsforHands

That is true. However, when both founders of Google are big time donors to Dem and lib politics, and one of them brazenly said it is their duty to record every search record to assist the govt, I find that uncomfortable. Scroogle does as good a job as Google, I found out later..


13 posted on 01/03/2010 9:06:19 PM PST by max americana
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To: DrGunsforHands

Well, searching and posting a blog there are two different things. For $5.00 a month you can get your own domain name and rent unlimited space on a server and control your own destiny with a blog. I repeat. If I thought I had something important to say I would not beg somebody with as idiotic a name a “google” to let me use their facilities.

That’s just me, though, if you like ‘em, go for ‘em.


14 posted on 01/03/2010 9:10:22 PM PST by RobinOfKingston (Democrats, the party of evil. Republicans, the party of stupid.)
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To: FromLori

BTTT


15 posted on 01/03/2010 9:10:56 PM PST by Jet Jaguar
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To: FromLori

save


16 posted on 01/03/2010 9:21:19 PM PST by Eagles6 ( Typical White Guy: Christian, Constitutionalist, Heterosexual, Redneck. (Let them eat arugula!))
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To: max americana
"Scroogle does as good a job as Google, I found out later.. "

I agree. I just discovered "Scroogle" a short time ago, and it's working perfect for me...uncluttered with graphics, and fast. Scroogle is my new "home" page and will remain as such, my main search engine.
17 posted on 01/03/2010 9:22:33 PM PST by FrankR (POWER FROM THE PEOPLE = POWER TO THE PEOPLE.)
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To: FrankR
I just checked and http://www.scroogle.com/ seems to be an Adult porn website. Or am I doing something wrong?
18 posted on 01/03/2010 9:30:27 PM PST by Screaming_Gerbil (Luke 22:36 "Then said he unto them...he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one.")
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Comment #19 Removed by Moderator

To: FromLori

A long article, but interesting. Have to say John did some real investigating.

I don’t think Malkin picking up on the story. But maybe maxkeiser.com.

If regulatory agencies did the jobs they are regulated to do, companies like Rajaratnam, Bernie’s, Stanford and Trio would be getting caught a lot sooner.

Billions and billions of dollars of regular investors losing money by those pretending to be investing in good faith.

You find out later on how these investment companies principals have surrounded themselves with politicians so eager to take their contribution money in exchange for some sort of degree of protection.

It has to stop.

With regards to this story, I don’t see the Biden brothers getting investigated any time soon.


20 posted on 01/03/2010 9:46:54 PM PST by VicVega (2010 Let only Real Conservatives win. Say good night John McCain.)
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