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Google’s romantic view of BNP website
You have to hand it to Google Ads - they can't be accused of discrimination. Visitors to GreenArrow.com, the bloggers' forum for the far-right British National Party, have been surprised in recent days to discover a series of full-colour banner ads for non-white dating agencies.
Inter-Racial Romances.com and Muslima - "a truly Muslim marriage and matrimonial service" - are both being plugged on the BNP forum - despite the party's strong line against inter-racial marriage.
Google Ads evidently decided that because of the multiple uses of words such as Muslim and Arab the site was 'relevant' to its clients' interests.
"I thought I was on the wrong forum," wrote one visitor. Another, Sarah, Maid of Albion, wrote: "I do find it rather offensive given that the picture clearly shows an Asian man and a Caucasian woman."
- Joseph Mackertich ·
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Comments
- Setting the record straight -
The Green Arrow message board is not owned, operated, or endorsed by the British National Party. The Green Arrow site displays adverts for Muslim dating sites because the site is operating on Pro-boards, which is a free hosting service akin to Google blogger. Pro-boards supports this 'free' service by displaying Google Adsense banners, the proceeds from which go directly and entirely to pro-boards. Members of the Green Arrow message board once logged in, do not see these ads if the site's owner pays a regular fee to pro-boards, however, the adverts are always visible to guests. The reason that Muslim targeted ad banners are displayed on the Green Arrow site, is that the Google Adsense algorithm has detected significant content on the site containing specific predetermined keywords assigned by advertisers targeting a Muslim audience. It is also very possible that someone not entirely sympathetic with the BNP is buying advertising space directly from Pro-boards in an attempt to embarrass the BNP by placing these seemingly antithetical banners on a Nationalist board.
And I sincerely doubt a well-established political party such as the BNP would ever resort to using such tacky, primitive freeware. The official BNP forum, in fact, uses vBulletin, which is the most popular licensed message board software in use. And to mirror the sentiments of this Maidofalbion person: Yes, the Green Arrow site is regarded with some embarrassment and perturbation within British Nationalist circles.
Anton Stritch