Two Oranges and A Banana

Is fresh fruit too erotic for Google's image-porn-filters? The image filters are a growing extension of word-filters. When is two oranges and a banana NSFW? These fruits are only erotic because we imagine the girl has something else in mind. We imagine she wants to lick balls, while a cock is big and thick. Algorithmic image filtering is another attempt by Google and other internet gatekeepers to censor our thoughts and imaginations. To control and direct what we see and hear, and ultimately control what we think. There is nothing accidental about this. Modern technology is the only thing new about this. The people in charge of large, money-making enterprises have always wanted to control the content which millions of people see and hear. This is the direction we go when billions of ad-dollars control internet content. That is the way corporations make money in the 21st Century, taking lessons from the powerful psychological facts and methods of political propaganda: To steer people's minds exactly where they wish the minds to go, and delete all distractions which may impede the progress of specific corporate or government agendas. Which usually means mind-fucking tens of millions of people, for the purpose of grabbing their cash, as fast as possible.

The word-filters and image filters now do this on a global scale, thereby limiting the ability of billions of people to communicate with each other effectively, honestly, like grown-ups --without being censored--- or worse, having our original content dropped into search-engine oblivion, where an independent-thinker's words and images appear 200 pages deep in the search engine results. Where only 5 or 6 people will read them. This became normal for YouTube years ago. Specific algorithms now bury non-money-making content so deep, no one will ever find it. This applies to popular content also, when the content does not serve the control-freak needs of internet advertisers. I always use the example of my 28-min video on archive.org: Submit to Dr. Moze – which currently has been viewed 316,000 times. This would be buried, or not even permitted on YouTube. It is only a fluke of internet algorithms which have allow the video to live long and prosper on archive.org. And the plain fact: archive.org is not answerable to, or censored by any internet advertisers.

When we consider the filtering rules adopted by internet providers and internet gatekeepers, we must ask ourselves: What is the over-arching agenda? What specific goals are this or that algorithm intended to accomplish. For at least two decades the goal of YouTube was to generate an audience of hundreds of millions of people, while acquiring FREE CONTENT. The creators were happy to donate their content to YouTube in hopes of gaining an audience. The business model mutated to pay some content providers some portion of the ad-money they generated, and pay them some tiny amount per view. Then the business model mutated again, to bury the content which was getting in the way of making money, or taking up space, without making any money. In other words, the free sharing of content, the use of YouTube to build a following for any creator of content, become subject to economic forces-- the big dollar advertisers-- which destroy the basic freedoms completely. With algorithms to delete, bury, or reject content at the will of Google, and the advertisers who keep Google in business.

Some cheery, optimistic, unicorn-and-rainbow readers will view this entire discussion as conspiracy theory or paranoia. Believe me, it is neither. For those of us who create content, and attempt to reach a large audience with our content- the facts listed above are the new normal. Print media is dead as a forum for the free exchange ideas with millions of people. And now the internet is less and less useful for that purpose. Exactly what form of media, what form of communication will people use to exchange ideas and images and sound with each other 50 years from now, when the internet has become a global totalitarian state, run by, edited by, controlled and censored by the biggest advertisers?