Google and Scientology cosy up

Scientology cultists have a lot in common with the corporate entertainment cartels.

Both groups detest the Net because it allows people around the world to communicate with each other freely and openly in a way that’s never before been possible.

Freedom of speech is an anathema to CoS and Hollywood and the Big 4 labels because it means they can no longer control and censor information and data flows.

P2P — people to people — power is the principal force of the digital 21st century.

With that in mind, Enturbulation was launched to “assist people with information concerning the Scientology Organization & to encourage activism in spreading awareness.”

Fair enough. Anything which aims to spread the word about the evil Cult of Scientology is to be encouraged.

Here’s the subject line of an email p2pnet received yesterday >>>

Google AdSense bends and spreads cheeks for Scientology

“Most of you have noticed that we often have Church of Scientology ads running on our site,” says Enturbulation, going on >>>

We use Google AdSense, which picks ads based on the text of a given page.

Advertisers purchase keywords, and the more frequently those words are used, the more likely their ads will run. This means we have no control over what ads appear.Of course, the irony of Scientology ads appearing on Enturbulation is not lost on us.

No kidding. But it gets richer.

“This morning, we received an email from Google AdSense,” says Enturbulation, to wit >>>

Hello Admin,

While going through our records recently, we found that your AdSense account has posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers. Since keeping your account in our publisher network may financially damage our advertisers in the future, we’ve decided to disable your account.

Please understand that we consider this a necessary step to protect the interests of both our advertisers and our other AdSense publishers. We realize the inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation.

If you have any questions about your account or the actions we’ve taken, please do not reply to this email. You can find more information by visiting

https://www.google.com/adsense/suppo...57153&hl=en_US.

Sincerely,

The Google AdSense Team

Adds Enturbulation >>>

It is safe to assume that the Church of Scientology did not like paying for ads which effectively supported our site, and contacted Google about this. However, as we have no control over the ads, the situation is rather frustrating.

Imagine if Pepsi ads began appearing on Coke’s website. Would Pepsi be able to have Coke’s adsense account disabled? It is not implausible to imagine the Church of Scientology buying keywords such as “Anonymous” and “Enturbulation” (ensuring that their ads would appear on our site) with the sole purpose of disabling our account.

Right. We know how that feels. Do No Evil chopped the p2pnet AdSense account many moons ago and our various efforts to find out why met with stony corporate silence.

But no worries for the anti-CoS people.

“Financially, this is an inconvenience, but not a threat,” says Enturbulation. “We have a cash buffer, allowing us to continue for several months at our current usage. In addition, the admins and mods feel strongly enough about the success of Chanology that we will personally ensure the continued operation of Enturbulation.org.

“All we ask of you, the users, is to spread the word of this new development. Contact Google (we’ll find the proper email addresses) and let them know what you think. In the event of a hostile entity purchasing ads with the specific purpose of disabling the site’s adsense account, what options or recourse does the site have? Ask them, ask digg, ask anyone who might listen.”