I live far from urban American decadence, way out in the boondocks. The main drawback of which is crappy Internet delivered via satellite. For some time now, I had been noticing that one of the major advertising blocks in my sidebar was missing, but I just figured that particular item had taken to loading slowly, and I was too busy to sit around waiting for it.
Technical savant that I am, it has taken me a mere six months to take the time to delve deeper into what was going on. I finally yesterday identified what was not coming up, and then logged into Google Adsense to investigate.
What do you know! I had no ads.
And why was that? Maybe there was a message somewhere… I looked and found this message from “The Google AdSense Team:”
Hello,
This message is to alert you that one of your websites is not currently in compliance with our AdSense program policies and as a result, ad serving has been disabled to your website.
Issue ID#: 18671552
Ad serving has been disabled to: neveryetmelted.com
Example page where violation occurred: https://www.neveryetmelted.com/2012/09/19/france-closes-20-embassies-after-french-satire-magazine-again-publishes-mohammed-cartoons/
Action required: Check all other remaining sites in your account for compliance.
Current account status: Active
Violation explanation
To protect the integrity of our advertising program and due to a lack of appropriate ad inventory, we do not allow monetization of websites that are dedicated to overly sensitive, tragic or hurtful content.
Action required: Check account for compliance
While ad serving has been disabled to the above site, your AdSense account remains active. Please be aware that the URL above is just an example and that the same violations may exist on other pages of this website or other sites you own. Therefore, we suggest that you take the time to review the rest of your sites to ensure that they’re in compliance with our policies, and to monitor your sites accordingly to reduce the likelihood of future policy emails from us. Additionally, please note that our team reserves the right to disable accounts at any time if we continue to see violations occurring.
Appeals
If you wish to appeal this disabling then you can do so by using the Issue ID listed above to contact us via our Help Center: https://support.google.com/adsense/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=113061.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Sincerely,
The Google AdSense Team
————————————————–
So I was banned by Google Adsense, back in last November, which I did not realize since the notice was (narcissistically) sent to my Google email address (which I never actually use).
The reason was my publication of “sensitive, tragic or hurtful content,” identified as a posting from 19 September 2012 reporting that France closed 20 of its embassies after the (vulgar and sophomoric) French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo, for the second time, had published crude cartoons mocking Mohammed.
My posting made a point of publishing images of the actual cartoons, which at the time many news organizations refrained from making available to their readers for fear of Muslim retaliation. I thought the cartoons were trivial in content and in poor taste, but I did also think that Islamic threats, violence, and intimidation challenging free speech in Western countries, and the cowardice of the establishment media, were quite serious issues and well worthy of attention.
So, Google Adsense, I find, is, in essence, enforcing Islamic prohibitions against even publishing, in the context of news reporting, cartoons insulting the Prophet Mohammed.
I was invited “to appeal.” Google absolutely refuses to enter into any other kind of communication with as insignificant a former business partner as myself.
When I clicked my way through the “appeal” on-line forms, I found that an appeal really consisted of a form begging Google to re-instate one’s advertising account and swearing that one had removed whatever it was that Google didn’t like.
Well, I have edited my sidebar code. Good-bye, Google Adsense. That space block is now dedicated to Amazon Associates advertising.
As for the Google Adsense team: “Ich heisse Götz von Berlichingen”
Personally, I think it is disgraceful that an American company is taking it upon itself to define and punish so-called “hurtful content,” even when the quotation objectionable to the camel-fornicating community was made specifically for news reporting purposes. But Google is, we must recall, located in California, land of left-wing bedwetters, where the eucalyptus trees exude so much self-entitlement, sanctimoniousness, and political correctness that the entire atmosphere is full of the stuff. What can one expect from a bunch of metrosexual millennials who go to work in Bermuda shorts and hoodies?
SDD
David —
It’s their ad server. I’m sure you believe that they should be able to set any rules they want to.
That said, they have done two things that they should be concerned about:
1. They clearly didn’t do this for business reasons (e.g. they would have less revenue if they were associated with content that might be construed as anti-Muslim). They did it so that they could loudly demonstrate that they were proactively protecting Muslim sensitivities. That’s advocacy.
2. Now that they have removed the pretense of being “content neutral” they will forever have to defend each action that they take in the future. It must be that “this” is acceptable and “that” is not. It’s a little like Wal-Mart deciding that it will allow some customers into the store, but not others. They will endlessly be asked to refine the definition of what constitutes an acceptable customer.
JKB
I guess they gave up on that whole “don’t be evil” motto.
Belajar Binis
I just got banned by Adsense, and I don’t know what’s the real reason because all this time I tried to make my blog comply whith Adsense rule. You may take a look my blog
Please Leave a Comment!