Google Targets 2-Time Pulitzer-Prize-Winning Cartoonist, Calls Our Poll ‘Dangerous,’ And More

Issues & Insights Editorial Board -

Political cartoonist Michael Ramirez has won two Pulitzer Prizes – an achievement only a handful of others in his category have achieved – as well as countless other awards for his unmatched mastery of his craft. His cartoons, syndicated by Creators, run in publications around the world.

Yet, to Google’s content police, Ramirez’s cartoons are “shocking content” and it is restricting ads on a page where a catalog of them appears.

How do we know this? Because it’s against our site that Google has taken this action.

Google’s AdSense network – which is used by some 3.5 million websites to generate revenue – defines “shocking content” as content that:

  • contains gruesome, graphic, or disgusting accounts or imagery.
  • depicts acts of violence.
  • contains a significant amount of or prominently features obscene or profane language.

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We appealed this ruling with Google and were denied. No explanation was offered, of course. And there’s no possible way to know what would constitute a “fix” that would satisfy Google.

See for yourself here. Ramirez’s cartoons can be provocative. They can be hilarious. They can be deadly serious. But they are works of art. There’s a reason we label him “World’s Greatest Cartoonist.”

This isn’t the only content Google is attacking. Every day we get alerts from Google AdSense of “policy violations” by one of our editorials or op-eds. Some are even more idiotic than the label they’re slapping on Ramirez cartoons.

  • An I&I/TIPP poll asked registered voters if they were worried about President Joe Biden’s mental health. Google labeled our report on the poll’s findings as “dangerous and derogatory.” How, exactly, are we supposed to “fix” this to Google’s satisfaction? Change the poll results? It’s worth pointing out that our polling partner, TIPP, is a highly respected firm that has had the most accurate forecasts for every presidential election since 2000.
  • Google’s content police said that an article about the Supreme Court ruling that the EPA had exceeded its constitutional authority in capping CO2 emissions from power plants is “dangerous and derogatory.” Google never provides specifics, but we suspect the leftists running the place recoiled at this line: “Today’s decision reaffirms that this Supreme Court takes the language and structure of the Constitution seriously and will no longer automatically defer to federal agency statutory interpretations or exertions of broad authority.” Can’t have people reading that, now can we?
  • It even labeled one of our “What We’re Reading” articles – which is simply a list of links to stories we find of interest – as both “dangerous and derogatory” and as containing “unreliable and harmful claims.”

The bulk of Google’s attacks on our content fall into three categories: politics, the environment, and COVID. In other words, the bulk of what we write about is in the tech giant’s crosshairs.

We recently stripped all but one of Google’s AdSense ads from our site. But we decided to keep one running – at the very bottom of the page – just so we can keep track of its actions.

As we noted in this space recently, we’re not sure anymore if it’s just leftists at Google who are making these decisions, or if the company is working in concert with the Biden administration.

Either way, it’s a disgrace.

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Here’s a partial list of the recent content that Google says violate its rules, and the reason given. Judge for yourself whether Google is being reasonable or is just trying to censor content that doesn’t fit the leftist agenda.

Our advice? Share these articles widely. Since Google apparently won’t run ads on them, it won’t make any extra money if you do.

— Written by the I&I Editorial Board