The Internet has enabled its detractors to deal what should be a fatal blow to the secrecy of Scientology. There is an enormous, comprehensive anti-Scientology website called Operation Clambake that has been up since 1996; there was a massive trove of documents leaked to WikiLeaks, unreadably huge, featuring everything from L. Ron Hubbard's FBI files to his "censored Helatrobus lectures," thousands upon thousands of internal documents and handbooks, legal files, recordings, videos

Sorry Brin, But Google’s The Main Actor Standing In The Way Of A Free And Open Web
Macgasm 16th April 2012
http://www.macgasm.net/2012/04/16/sorry ... -open-web/

[...]

Google Censors Search Results If You Have The Money To Pay A Lawyer For A DMCA Takedown

By this point, you might think we are flogging a dead horse, where the horse is Google’s continued censorship of the Internet. You’d be dead wrong. As it turns out, customers can pay money to have competition and negative commentary removed from Google. All you have to do is hire a good lawyer and file a DMCA takedown notice. That’s exactly what the Church of Scientology did in 2002, and Google caved quickly and removed the offending sites from its listings.

From F.A.C.T.n.e.t:

Andreas Heldal-Lund, webmaster of http://www.xenu.net/ , got a DMCA [Digital Millenium Copyright Act] notification letter from Google earlier today. In the letter, a long list of URLs were listed as infringing, and Google apparently complied with the DMCA request by removing them.

The only problem was that the website mentioned Scientology. The result, Google took down and delisted a lot of the site’s content. We’re not lawyers, so we’re not exactly sure how Google could have been held responsible for listing content on another website, but delisting the site is exactly what they did. I’m not one for “hate speech,” but in a land that flaunts First Ammendment rights any chance it gets, it’s a little surprising that a company would pull down a site’s listing based on a DMCA request. You can see a list of links here: http://mcgsm.co/HSiHM9. Again, not exactly the most free and open Internet on the planet, unless Brin means free and open unless it conflicts with Google’s corporate interests.

Sadly, this story doesn’t end there either. Google also closed down an adsense account for a website that was openly critical of Scientology, taking with it all of its earned revenue. Again, a stark contrast to the free and open Internet that Brin seems to be championing these days to news agencies the world over.

[...]

Ok sponge...you have me completely baffled...please explain "Brin"? Could it be Bing?

The 32 minute, 17 second video Jason Beghe: Friends and Neighbors has been removed from the SchwabelStudio YouTube channel. A condensed 8 minute, 16 second version is still available on Vimeo: Jason Beghe: Friends and Neighbors.

Here is a transcript of the segment about Scientology (21:28-26:44) that appeared in the deleted YouTube video:

Jason Beghe: Well, I always have been very spiritually motivated. You know, that's probably the core interest in my life.

I was in this acting class, and my teacher was a Scientologist. And through a series of circumstances, I just said, "Hmm ..." I kind of realized that I didn't trust him, which I thought was a liability in some ways and ... And then I looked at that and I realized I didn't trust anybody, including myself, and it was like this kind of ruinous moment. And so, for whatever reason, the way that I decided to handle that at that moment was: "Let me find out what Scientology is." Something I would have never done.

I'm no longer a Scientologist, but I still have many experiences with them.

Interviewer: How so?

Jason Beghe: Well, I became, by accident, one of the most outspoken critics of Scientology.

So I'd never ... I'm not an Internet guy. I had to hardly even send an email at that point. But I had heard about this thing called Wikipedia. And I go, just as a fucking vain actor type: "What if I'm on this fucking thing?" Because everything's on this shit, right?

So I go: Jason Beghe. Sure enough, I'm on the fucking thing. It says, you know: "American actor, born in [inaudible], friend of John Kennedy," or something, and then it says: "public supporter of Scientology," was the last sentence. And, I tell you, I felt nauseated, because the reason I left was because I couldn't associate myself with good conscience with this group. And I said that to them, with love and respect.

I did know that I had a responsibility. I didn't know how to fulfill it. I did feel, and I said to them, that they needed reformation of some kind. You know. And they ... they ... It was very hard for them to look at that. They thought that it was a perfect system that reformed itself, and I disagreed.

And I had heard, I think on a TV show, there was, like, a controversy, because people can change things on Wikipedia. I figured: "Okay."

I had come across one guy who was a very outspoken critic. He had started a famous website called Operation Clambake, which is http://www.xenu.net, and he lives in Norway. And it was late at night. He's the only guy I could think of that I knew that was a computer dude, and I said: "Can you change this thing? Here's my password. I don't know how to do this fucking computer shit." And he's a ... he's a ... He explains to me that you have to have something to kind of verify it. And he says: "Why don't you just write a fucking, you know, tell your story and I'll post it on my blog, and that'll handle it. I said: "Don't they have, like, videos and shit on ... on the, you know, on the Internet?" And he's, like: "Yeah."

I said: "Well, can we do that?" And he's, like: "Okay, yeah, that's a great idea!" And he happens to be coming to LA next week and he gets this guy to come to my house, who's a video guy or something. They show up, I introduce myself, give them some food, and we sit down. They ask me some questions, not dissimilar to this, and it becomes this video ... It was, like, had 750,000 hits in two days, before it mysteriously disappeared. It was, like, on the Yahoo home page. It was international fucking news. Matt Lauer had called: "Can you come and do ..." I'm, like: "No, no, no." Because I didn't want it to be about me. But I became, by accident, this guy.

And then, you know, I start getting ... I mean, to this day, every week, I get three or four emails from people, you know, thanking me for saving their life and their child who was ... they thought they'd never see again.

And so, you know, it's just a thing that I do because I feel it's useful.

I don't care what somebody's religion is. I really don't. I don't care what anybody believes. I just don't like other people getting hurt. I don't like people hurting somebody. And, you know, from what I understand, Scientology is doing some ... some ... too much hurting. And so that's all that I have a problem with.

While I was a member, I was one of their dearest ... dearest, dearest people. But now they despise me. All my friends refuse ... all, you know, who had been in Scientology, you know, they would never talk to me.

Like, I looked at this and I go: "How the fuck did I ever get in a cult?" I don't strike me as the kind of motherfucker who would fall into a cult, you know. And I ... And it really was bewildering. And then I look at that and I say: "God Almighty!" You know, particularly this country, you'd be hard pressed to find somebody who wasn't in a cult. This whole fucking country's a cult, you know. You know, believing things with no evidence. You know. And, you know, because it makes you feel good.