Top 10 Listverse Lists Google Doesn’t Want You To See

It’s no secret that Google is slowly suppressing offbeat content or channels on YouTube that don’t support the political and social views the company is promoting for reasons we’ll leave for conspiracy theory lists. Even our own startup YouTube channel had four of its six videos flagged for demonetization.

What is less known is that Google has been involved in this practice for many years across the world wide web. Listverse was founded in 2007 and for the first four years relied almost entirely on Google for revenue to keep things going. During that time, our Google account manager would frequently email to tell us that we had to remove certain content or at the very least remove Google ads from that content or we would have our account terminated.

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I pointed out that it was a form of soft censorship but was rebuffed with such responses as “you don’t have to comply: we just won’t pay you”. Nice one Google. As other advertising companies grew in size and we were able to switch away from Google’s ad network, things improved. However, Google owns the biggest search Engine in the world and they are now using that (along with Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter who are censoring like mad) to manipulate content: you can publish what you like, but if Google doesn’t like it, it is hidden from search results. While this behavior doesn’t break the law, it does mean that you can’t survive publishing content that goes against the narrative being promoted by Social Media giants. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see that this will lead to the dumbing down and sterilization of online content and push people to such places as the Dark Web for genuine content.

Yesterday’s QANon list by Mary Fetzer inspired me to put this list together. So, here are the ten most popular articles we published, that Google requested we suppress in one way or another.

10 Banned Controversial Album Covers
By Maggot, 291 Comments

Read The List: 10 Banned Controversial Album Covers

A great list by one of our most beloved commenters and readers Maggot. My favorite line from the list: “Today of course, I am older and wiser, and so I can offer a much more mature commentary on the artistry of this photo: Did you see the racks on those babes?!” To answer: yes, Maggot, we saw them. Even if the powers that be really didn’t want us to.

Maggot’s introduction, in part, reads: “What is “art”? Over the years there have been many record albums or CDs released with what was deemed to be controversial or offensive cover artwork. Censorship and attempts to define the limits of free speech is a subject worthy of debating, and of course “offensive” imagery is in the eye of the beholder. As such, some of these might seem rather tame by today’s standards, but nonetheless they originally elicited enough controversy, public outcry, or heavy-handed pressure from major retailers, to cause censoring actions.”

9 Things You Didn’t Know About Pornography
By Jamie Frater, 295 Comments

Read The List: Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Pornography

We should have retitled this one: “Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Pornography And Never Will If Google Gets Their Way”. Here is the introduction: “Erotica has existed since man first was able to think. A once large industry has now burst out as a giant in entertainment due to the Internet. Most people with access to the net has seen pornography either intentionally or accidentally. This list takes a look at some of the more obscure facts surrounding pornography.”

8 Details That Make History’s Worst Tragedies Even Worse
By Mark Oliver, 327 Comments

Read The List: 10 Details That Make History’s Worst Tragedies Even Worse

I’ll leave it up to you to guess which particular entry on this list really bothered Big Brother. Here is Mark’s introduction to this fascinating list: “We like to imagine that we learn from our tragedies—that when the worst moment comes, people change their ways and start working together to make things right. But sometimes, even after the catastrophe is over, the tragedy continues. People get swept up in the havoc and chaos of the moment and do things that make history’s worst moments even worse. And in the aftermath, some of our darkest moments are left with details too bleak to make it into the history books.”

7Spunky Facts About Sperm
By Petros Absalon, 387 Comments

Read The List: 10 Spunky Facts About Sperm

Oh come on! What on earth is wrong with a sciencey list about sperm? Perhaps it needed to be combined with a list about ova for the censors to allow it. Too much “white” male privilege perhaps. The introduction: “Sperm and semen are as common as men in the world. However, aside from knowing that it comes from the male genitals and is important for making babies, there are still a lot of amazing things about it that many of us don’t know. For example, during World War I, British spies had the bright idea to use semen as invisible ink. After one agent decided to store his semen in a bottle, the letters he sent using the invisible ink stank so much that his handlers were forced to send him a letter telling him that a ‘fresh operation is necessary for each letter.’”

6 Incestuous Relationships In the Bible
By Jamie Frater, 387 Comments

Read The List: Top 6 Incestuous Relationships In the Bible

How could this not be controversial? the Bible and sex together on one list! Here is the introduction I wrote for the list before Google slapped a chain on it: “Religious scholars say that God suspended the laws of incest in the early days of man in order to ensure that man spread on the earth. In the words of the commentators of the Douay Rheims Bible: “God [dispensed] with such marriages in the beginning of the world, as mankind could not otherwise be propagated.” Despite that, these tales are not all simply matters of procreation – particularly item 1. So, here is a list of 6 of the more questionable relationships in the Bible.”

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5 Incendiary Facts About Incest
By Eliza Lenz, 438 Comments

Read The List: 10 Incendiary Facts About Incest

It seems that Google really hates incest . . . perhaps it hits a little close to home for someone on their Propaganda and Censorship team. This list certain did leave some rather hot under the collar. Eliza opens thusly: “We all seem to know that incest is wrong, either through cultural conditioning or what appear to be innate evolutionary cues, yet some humans can’t seem to resist the urge to bed their relatives. In fact, since the DNA of every living human is 99.9 percent the same, it may be much more common than we think. Still, that doesn’t mean incest is a good thing. As we will see, breeding with a close relative can result in some dire consequences.”

4 Animals That Practice Homosexuality
By Andrew Blackstone, 446 Comments

Read The List: 10 Animals That Practice Homosexuality

When Hollywood decided they needed to educate us all on nature vs nurture, a number of wildly popular TV shows such as Will and Grace and Parks and Recreation dedicated entire episodes to informing us that animals—particularly penguins—are gay and it’s okay. Thank God for Hollywood saving the gays; where would we be without them? Probably still burning at the stake. Anyway, for some reason Google decided that we shouldn’t publish similar content and our list of ten gay animals was given the chop. Here’s the intro:

“Scientific research is spotting a surprising range of animals that engage in same-sex relationships. In this mind-expanding list, we will look at the “Lesbian Albatrosses” of Hawaii; male dolphins who keep boyfriends; and same-sex seagull couples who adopt young to raise together. In the animal world, big surprises always await us.”

3 Beautiful Celebrity Brunettes
By Randall, 563 Comments

Read The List: Top 25 Beautiful Celebrity Brunettes

I’m sure most readers will have seen the hit TV show from Netflix (before it lost its mojo) called Stranger Things. Believe it or not the mother from the show (Winona Ryder) was once a beautiful brunette who had men swooning (actually men didn’t swoon like they do these days—they probably grunted instead). Pictured here and number one on the list by our now-missing much loved regular, Randall. Needless to say a large number of the comments were from people disgruntled at the “sexualization” of women. They must have written Google and asked to have us cancelled, judging by the nasty ban letter we got. Here’s part of the rather long intro:

“The brunette, in history, has always been seen as the temptress, the siren; from Lilith of Hebrew mythology to Shakespeare’s ‘dark lady of the sonnets,’ the brunette has been the woman who gives men pause even while we desire her, as though we sense there’s a dangerous cleverness in her that will destroy us.”

2 Ways Pornography Shapes The World
By Chris Jenkins, 599 Comments

Read The List: 10 Ways Pornography Shapes The World

A really interesting list that has some incredibly unexpected entries. If you hated the Brunette list, this one will really drive you crazy. Here’s a bit of the intro: “Pornography is often associated with deviant behavior and sexual violence. Many people at least assume it has a negative effect on those who view it, especially young people. These individuals, then, may be surprised to hear that pornography has helped guard the Constitution, redefine art, and even keep young women safe.” Like I said, “unexpected”.

1 Shocking Cases Of Female Sexual Predators
By Damien B., 698 Comments

Read The List: 10 Shocking Cases Of Female Sexual Predators

This is a very disturbing list and no reason was given by Google for its banning. It covers a number of real life cases of predation against children by women in positions of power over them. Google has not typically had a problem with lists dealing with deviance perpetrated by men or general predatory-type lists. The intro is short. Here it is in its entirety: “When we think of sexual predators, the image that springs to mind is usually a man. However, there are many recorded cases of women committing such vile acts. Below are 10 sexual assaults in which the perpetrator was a woman.”

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