Google has rejected an application from conservative website The Gateway Pundit to appear in Google News search results.
In an email to the Gateway Pundit, Google claimed that it could not provide specific reasons why the site had been rejected. Instead, the tech giant provided two “common reasons for rejection,” although it would not say if they were the actual reasons the conservative website was rejected.
Per Google’s rules, publishers must submit an application to have their site appear in Google News search results. Once rejected, a publisher must wait 60 days before applying again.
Here is the message Google sent to The Gateway Pundit.
Review Complete: Site Rejected
Thanks for your interest in sharing your content via Google News. Unfortunately, we can’t include your website in Google News at this time.
Before you request inclusion again, review our content policies and technical guidelines. You can also visit the Google News Help Forum, where Google News employees and publishers often share helpful tips and expertise. Members of the forum may provide specific suggestions and feedback for your website.
While we can’t provide specific feedback for publishers seeking inclusion, here are the top 3 most common reasons for rejection.
- Unoriginal content: Google News values original reporting. If your site shows syndicated content, make sure it’s properly attributes and makes up less than 50% of the content on your site. Advertising and other paid promotional material on your pages should not exceed your content.
- Unclear ownership or authorship: Google News strives to show readers news from transparent sites with verifiable author information. Make sure site ownership, mission, and contact information (such as email and physical addresses and phone numbers) are available. Articles should display author information.
After a minimum of 60 days, you can submit your website for review again using the Request Inclusion in Google News button next to your site in the Publisher Center.
The Gateway Pundit does not appear to be in violation of the “unoriginal content” nor the “unclear ownership or authorship” criteria.
The vast majority of articles on The Gateway Pundit are original writeups from its reporters. The site has also published multiple exclusive stories over the past year, including comments from U.S. Senators, a letter from President Trump to Vladimir Putin, as well as information on outgoing defence secretary Gen. Jim Mattis’ long-rumored presidential bid.
Both ownership and authorship on The Gateway Pundit is also more than clear. The website’s “about” page clearly identifies the owner of the site as Jim Hoft, the website has a contact form, and the vast majority of articles have an author byline. (You currently have to scroll past 52 articles with author bylines before you find a piece with an “Assistant Editor” byline — a common device occasionally used by publishers).
Google suggests that the inclusion of phone numbers and physical addresses can help publishers pass the application process — but if that’s a necessary criteria, it seems wholly unreasonable in an era when mobs of masked radicals harass the families of conservative pundits in their homes.
Then again, Google’s links to the violent far-left extremist “Antifa” movement are well-documented, and the company has so far failed to explicitly disavow the movement, despite its official classification as a domestic terrorist organization.
Via Breitbart
