A local non profit site called rollanet.org, that is similar to craiglist, just had to pull their firearms section because google made them. Here is the conversation a friend of mine posted to Facebook about the change:
"I just called Rollanet and talked to a gentleman by the name of Gary there. The issue did not start with them. Google Ad sense was the culprit. I spent almost 40 minutes on the phone with Gary. They are looking for alternatives for the buying and selling of firearms and related items. Google gave them 3 days to drop the firearms part. It is in a contractual agreement that Google has with them and the fact that Google provides 68% of their funding which at this time they cannot replace via other sources. Exactly how many dollars is 68% he could not tell me as he did not know. I told him it is pretty bad that a faceless corporation can come in and dictate policy via their check book. He has agreed and says they are all not happy with this decision either but their hands are tied for the moment. As a non profit organization they have to be very careful of their stances in both actuality and appearance. I suggested to him to look for funding which was friendlier to the 2nd Amendment. I also told him we just enacted into Missouri Constitution the 2nd Amendment preservation act and it was supported by all of Missouri. He knew about that too. This is a money thing and Google was flexing their monetary muscle to force this to happen. So, that being said, everyone should now boycott anything to do with Google. I am deleting Google Earth off my laptop when we are done here and any thing else I can find including their search engine. I think that Gary did a very good job and he seemed very genuine in his actions and words. He did ask that we give them time to try to correct this the best way they can. I told him I would put our conversation out for all to read. He also said his phone has been very busy this morning. As well as it should be. They need to know at least how we stand in this. I said we would endeavor to support them but the firearms thing will not go away. They are working on it as we speak. Or so he said."
"I just called Rollanet and talked to a gentleman by the name of Gary there. The issue did not start with them. Google Ad sense was the culprit. I spent almost 40 minutes on the phone with Gary. They are looking for alternatives for the buying and selling of firearms and related items. Google gave them 3 days to drop the firearms part. It is in a contractual agreement that Google has with them and the fact that Google provides 68% of their funding which at this time they cannot replace via other sources. Exactly how many dollars is 68% he could not tell me as he did not know. I told him it is pretty bad that a faceless corporation can come in and dictate policy via their check book. He has agreed and says they are all not happy with this decision either but their hands are tied for the moment. As a non profit organization they have to be very careful of their stances in both actuality and appearance. I suggested to him to look for funding which was friendlier to the 2nd Amendment. I also told him we just enacted into Missouri Constitution the 2nd Amendment preservation act and it was supported by all of Missouri. He knew about that too. This is a money thing and Google was flexing their monetary muscle to force this to happen. So, that being said, everyone should now boycott anything to do with Google. I am deleting Google Earth off my laptop when we are done here and any thing else I can find including their search engine. I think that Gary did a very good job and he seemed very genuine in his actions and words. He did ask that we give them time to try to correct this the best way they can. I told him I would put our conversation out for all to read. He also said his phone has been very busy this morning. As well as it should be. They need to know at least how we stand in this. I said we would endeavor to support them but the firearms thing will not go away. They are working on it as we speak. Or so he said."
