Is it possible that Google may employ some bigots or even (gasp)… conservatives?
Google is doing some explaining as to why offensive images popped up as a result of searches for Michelle Obama and Jews.
Google is running advertisements to explain the appearance of racist and anti-Semitic material in search results, including a picture which depicts US First Lady Michelle Obama as a monkey.
"Sometimes Google search results from the internet can include disturbing content, even from innocuous queries," the Mountain View, California-based search giant said in an ad signed "The Google Team".
"We assure you that the views expressed by such sites are not in any way endorsed by Google," Google said.
Their rationale for how these images could have been generated?
"A site's ranking in Google's search results relies heavily on computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page's relevance to a given query," it said.
"Sometimes subtleties of language cause anomalies to appear that cannot be predicted," Google said.
(italics, ours)
Oh, really?
That’s not necessarily the tune they were singing back in December of 2008 when we blogged about some very curious image results we were getting from the search engine.
Google this week admitted that its staff will pick and choose what appears in its search results. It's a historic statement - and nobody has yet grasped its significance.
Not so very long ago, Google disclaimed responsibility for its search results by explaining that these were chosen by a computer algorithm. The disclaimer lives on at Google News, where we are assured that:
The selection and placement of stories on this page were determined automatically by a computer program.
A few years ago, Google's apparently unimpeachable objectivity got some people very excited, and technology utopians began to herald Google as the conduit for a new form of democracy. Google was only too pleased to encourage this view. It explained that its algorithm "relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual page's value. "
(emphasis in the original)
So, we can assume then that Google is back to apparent unimpeachable objectivity by relying on the uniquely democratic nature of their computer algorithm for churning up offensive pictures of the First Lady and Jews.
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2 comments:
The images are racial slurs and NOT subject to free speech and should be prosecuted as hate crimes. At the least;indecent or pornographic. The historic statement BwD referenced IS indicative of the historic times, ..you know, with our new president and all.
Relying on computer algorithms is just as bias as relying on school test scores and Google knew it! Of course Google did the right thing. Internet hate crimes need to be a thing of the past.
Making a lot of money without the scrutiny of an administration looking desperately for revenue is a very good business decision, but let’s assume Google’s motives are pure. Time will tell, let’s all make sure they keep a lid on it.
I have seen some posts at BwD displaying our President haggard and smoking, and not at all looking presidential. These images must be deleted from the BwD archives. The staff at BwD needs to perform this as a gesture of “good faith” and “change”.
Our president, (in a personal email) had reminded me of my civic obligation to report, right wing extremist, terrorist activity such as this, so please purge your archives for offensive photos such as this.
I will be checking later
Off topic: Happy Thanksgiving, amigo!
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