2GB radio host Michael Smith angry after Google blocked search access | The Australian
An angry Smith said the claim was defamatory and rubbish, and it was
time for the government to consider laws to make Google accountable for
its actions in denying access to users’ websites through search.
“Google’s market power situation has never arisen before in the history of commerce,” he said.
“Google regulates everyone on the internet, but no one is regulating Google.”
The
former 2UE and now 2GB broadcaster says that from Sunday, Google had
denied at least 30,000 Australians from accessing his website
michaelsmithnews.com, where he has been highlighting corruption in the
trade union movement.
The talkback host reached an out-of-court
settlement to leave 2UE last year, following an unaired interview that
made allegations about Julia Gillard’s former relationship with a union
official.
Smith said users who searched his website using Firefox or Chrome
browsers received the message: “Danger – malware ahead. Google Chrome
has blocked access to this page …” and that his website was “a known
malware distributor”, and visiting the site was “likely to infect your
computer with malware”.
He said he used antivirus software
assiduously, that no user had ever reported being infected with malware
from his site, and that following a legal letter to Google Inc in the
US, Google and he agreed his website didn’t contain malware.
However
the Mountain View, California, global corporation had persisted with
warning his readers by listing his website as “suspicious – visiting
this website may harm your computer”. He is demanding Google remove all
warnings immediately.
“Last Sunday we woke to the Abbott government’s announcement of a royal commission into corruption in trade unions,” he said.
“My
website has focused on the issue of trade union corruption and I
expected a large influx of visitors to the site. Instead of traffic to
my website, I awoke to hundreds of emails, many with screen capture
images showing what my readers saw when they tried to log on to my
website.”
The warning included “a scary graphic of a masked bandit tiptoeing away with a sack full of money,” Smith said.
He says he subsequently lost about 80 per cent of website traffic.
An angry Smith said the claim was defamatory and rubbish, and it was
time for the government to consider laws to make Google accountable for
its actions in denying access to users’ websites through search.
“Google’s market power situation has never arisen before in the history of commerce,” he said.
“Google regulates everyone on the internet, but no one is regulating Google.”
The
former 2UE and now 2GB broadcaster says that from Sunday, Google had
denied at least 30,000 Australians from accessing his website
michaelsmithnews.com, where he has been highlighting corruption in the
trade union movement.
The talkback host reached an out-of-court
settlement to leave 2UE last year, following an unaired interview that
made allegations about Julia Gillard’s former relationship with a union
official.
Smith said users who searched his website using Firefox or Chrome
browsers received the message: “Danger – malware ahead. Google Chrome
has blocked access to this page …” and that his website was “a known
malware distributor”, and visiting the site was “likely to infect your
computer with malware”.
He said he used antivirus software
assiduously, that no user had ever reported being infected with malware
from his site, and that following a legal letter to Google Inc in the
US, Google and he agreed his website didn’t contain malware.
However
the Mountain View, California, global corporation had persisted with
warning his readers by listing his website as “suspicious – visiting
this website may harm your computer”. He is demanding Google remove all
warnings immediately.
“Last Sunday we woke to the Abbott government’s announcement of a royal commission into corruption in trade unions,” he said.
“My
website has focused on the issue of trade union corruption and I
expected a large influx of visitors to the site. Instead of traffic to
my website, I awoke to hundreds of emails, many with screen capture
images showing what my readers saw when they tried to log on to my
website.”
The warning included “a scary graphic of a masked bandit tiptoeing away with a sack full of money,” Smith said.
He says he subsequently lost about 80 per cent of website traffic.
