Re:"Police state" search got censored in Italy
by richsnipe on Wednesday May 07, 2025 @07:43AM
(#43914435)
Yes, if you use the quotes you get the old results. But this is the point: many users are unaware of this possibility and take this result for granted, especially if they do not know that until recently, instead, search engines understood the request well without inverting the words. I know it seems like a paranoid conspiracy, but also the fact that it makes reference to immigration seems to me a very tendentious answer, in addition to the fact that the news contains articles ONLY from police stations (very strange indeed, not even a newspaper).
Incidentally, we also know from Google and Apple emails that some Italian journalists critical of the government have been reported to have been infected with high-level government spyware (Paragon), so it's not that unthinkable.
Finally, I wouldn't know how to consistently run a solely political blog, I would just like citizens to discover by experimenting for themselves with the search for this change and take note of it.
Thank you
Re:"Police state" search got censored in Italy
by Iolaum on Wednesday May 07, 2025 @07:46AM
(#43914462)
> I would just like citizens to discover by experimenting for themselves with the search for this change and take note of it.
I'm not sure that's reasonable. People's situation, skills, and interests vary.
Re:"Police state" search got censored in Italy
by richsnipe on Wednesday May 07, 2025 @07:52AM
(#43914506)
I just know that people are so scared of losing democracy that they can't accept when they have the loss of their freedom in front of them. And even posting about it is difficult, now all the forums work like reddit, you talk about flowers and the moderators delete your post. I just want to not feel complicit in all this by watching.
Re:"Police state" search got censored in Italy
by metalman on Wednesday May 07, 2025 @11:43AM
(#43917181)
It's just a turf war, the mafia are loosing relavance so they bought off the seach engine companys, well of course you cant prove that, but sufice it to say that they know some low people in high places, the last thing they need is people running to the police when they need something fixed.
Start an Italian-language blog/Substack about it and promote it to the right audience. If the past 15 years of politics have taught us anything, it's that, for better or worse, citizen bloggers can become quite influential.
Another thing you can do is find an attorney and contact Google's EU office, requesting clarification.
But consider the possibility this this is not a conspiracy. It could just be generic enshittification, as is known to have affected Google in recent years. If you search with quotes, you'll find that you get different and better results.