Google Staffers Claim Rigging Was Not Implemented

by Robert Spencer
September 25, 2018 at 4:00 am

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/13025/google-search-rigging

It wasn't implemented? Really?
On July 26, 2017, I posted this at Jihad Watch: "Google bows to Muslim pressure, changes search results to conceal criticism of Islam and jihad." '
In it, I recounted Texas imam Omar Suleiman's successful effort to compel Google to drop search results about Islam-related terms and topics that reflected negatively upon Islam. Turkey's Anadolu Agency reported happily:

"Google's first page results for searches of terms such as 'jihad', 'shariah' and 'taqiyya' now return mostly reputable explanations of the Islamic concepts. Taqiyya, which describes the circumstances under which a Muslim can conceal their belief in the face of persecution, is the sole term to feature a questionable website on the first page of results."

It wasn't implemented? Really? On July 26, 2017, I posted this at Jihad Watch: "Google bows to Muslim pressure, changes search results to conceal criticism of Islam and jihad." In it, I recounted Texas imam Omar Suleiman's successful effort to compel Google to drop search results about Islam-related terms and topics that reflected negatively upon Islam. Turkey's Anadolu Agency reported happily:

"Google's first page results for searches of terms such as 'jihad', 'shariah' and 'taqiyya' now return mostly reputable explanations of the Islamic concepts. Taqiyya, which describes the circumstances under which a Muslim can conceal their belief in the face of persecution, is the sole term to feature a questionable website on the first page of results."

"Reputable": i.e., acceptable under the Sharia prohibition on criticism of Islam. "Questionable website": i.e., one that tells hard truths about Islam and jihad.

So this has been going on for quite some time, as it is virtually certain that Google wasn't skewering the results only about Islam and jihad in July 2017. Only now is it being discovered by the general public. President Trump is right to call the social media giants out. Let's hope he can stop them before the make the First Amendment an entirely dead letter.

"Google staffers wanted to manipulate search results to combat Trump's travel ban, emails show," by Brian Flood, Fox News, September 21, 2018:

Google is in the spotlight after internal emails show conversations between employees highlighting a desire to manipulate search results on the heels of President Trump's controversial travel ban in order to mute conservative viewpoints and push ways to combat the ban.

Like many Silicon Valley titans, Google has drawn the ire of conservatives who feel right-leaning views are condemned from within. But internal company emails made public by Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on Thursday appear to show employees wanted to curate Google's algorithm to boost left-leaning political views on immigration.

The emails were written on Jan. 29, 2017 — two days after Trump signed the initial travel order that resulted in protests across the country. The emails indicate that Google employees suggested ways to "leverage" the search engine to combat what the tech giant staffers considered anti-immigration rhetoric and news. The email chain, which was first obtained by "Tucker Carlson Tonight" and quickly matched by the Wall Street Journal, shows Google staffers admitting to colleagues that action must be taken immediately to rally against the travel ban.

"Overall idea: Leverage search to highlight important organizations to donate to, current news, etc. to keep people abreast of how they can help as well as the resources available for immigrations [sic] or people traveling," an email sent by a marketing employee said.

"I know this would require a full on sprint to make happen, but I think this is the sort of super timely and imperative information that we need as we know that this country and Google, would not exist without immigration," a product manager responded.

According to "Tucker Carlson Tonight," responses from other Google employees included comments such as, "we're absolutely in," and "excellent initiative." Other emails reveal an employee called the situation a "highly political issue," while a separate email detailed a "large brainstorm" that was apparently taking place throughout the company.

The emails show Google staffers chatting about methods to alter the company's algorithm to point users to pro-immigration organizations, lawmakers and agencies that fit the staffers' political beliefs. Google didn't deny the validity of the emails and provided the same response to both "Tucker Carlson Tonight" and the Wall Street Journal.

"These emails were just a brainstorm of ideas, none of which were ever implemented. Google has never manipulated its search results or modified any of its products to promote a particular political ideology — not in the current campaign season, not during the 2016 election, and not in the aftermath of President Trump's executive order on immigration. Our processes and policies would not have allowed for any manipulation of search results to promote political ideologies," a Google spokesperson said.

A Google insider echoed the company spokesperson and said the ideas mentioned in the emails weren't even close to being put into action.

Media Research Center Vice President Dan Gainor told Fox News that the scandal would be more significant if there was evidence that the Google staffers had "actually taken action on this left-wing insanity," but "it is scary that manipulating the search to push a liberal agenda was even discussed."...

Trump's initial travel ban temporarily stopped immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries. According to the email chain, Google staffers suggested actively countering "islamophobic, algorithmically biased results from search terms 'Islam,' 'Muslim,' 'Iran,' etc." and countering 'prejudiced, algorithmically biased search results" regarding the words "Mexico," "Hispanic" and "Latino."...

This article has been reprinted from Jihad Watch, with the permission of the author.

© 2024 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.

Recent Articles by Robert Spencer

Hamas Accuses Israel of Sending Aphrodisiac Gum Into Gaza, 2009-07-24
Iran: Artist Gets Five Year Jail Term For Musical Koran, 2009-07-17
Indian State Promises to Stop Referring to Terror Groups as "Islamic", 2009-07-16
Jihadist Charities More Popular Than American Aid in Pakistani Refugee Camps, 2009-07-03

receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free gatestone institute mailing list.

Comment on this item

11 Reader Comments

lyn uzelac • Sep 27, 2018 at 10:02

So Google can control what people view - but in view of what they have done with jihadism can we expect to see the same applied to paedophilia - or is it something the Google staffers enjoy? Presumably Google can now be answerable for the less salubrious items that appear on the web.

Reply->

Malcolm • Sep 26, 2018 at 05:28

To check out the current state of affairs, today I did a search for "Jihad" in Google. The first page of ten results included standard definitions from Wikipedia, Merriam-Webster, Brittanica, Wikiquote, the BBC and Wiktionasry. I imagine that any search for the definition of a term would typically bring up such sites, so those silly Turks were gloating over a supposed change that never took place. The second page of ten results included and article "What Does Jihad Mean?" from the Middle East Forum and an Amazon link to "The History of Jihad: From Muhammad to ISIS" by none other than Robert Spencer, the author of this article. So at least in the case of "Jihad" there is today no such censorship by Google, but rather quite a boost for Spencer. I leave the bother of checking the other terms listed by Spencer to him himself or to anyone else who has enough curiosity.

Reply->

CeCelia Squires • Sep 25, 2018 at 17:50

Once I recongized the left bias of Google, I switched my search to Duckduckgo.com

Reply->

Bisley • Sep 25, 2018 at 17:25

Of course, Google manipulates search results, and always has. Anything that could possibly have a political, or ideological component is skewed to give results promoting the leftist position -- and anything opposing their position is ignored, or buried to the degree that they think it won't provoke too much complaint. Keeping opposition viewpoints off the first page of results guarantees that most people will never be exposed to any challenge to the leftist narrative.

Reply->

Dorothy Davies • Sep 25, 2018 at 14:19

Scary! The internet is about the one place left for free speech.

Reply->

C. LEFEVRE- LOWRY • Sep 25, 2018 at 13:01

Not only Google is guilty of this. Twitter is rampant with Islamic manipulators that judge you guilty of hate speech and shut you down for any remarks pointing to the truth about their jihad.

Reply->

Dominic • Sep 25, 2018 at 11:49

Google has an incredible amount of power to manipulate people. Probably most of the people reading this article have used the search engine during the day. It is a subtle thing to change what information people "stumble into" but those who have the potential to do so on a vast scale should be watched with extreme caution.

Reply->

Alan

Dominic • Sep 25, 2018 at 18:02

At a minimum one should use DuckDuckGo. It's a better search engine mainly because it gives you the information you're looking for without political bias and doesn't track you.

Reply->

Alan • Sep 25, 2018 at 10:26

Google has mastered the art of lying to conceal your true intentions and actions. Same tactics as the religion of peace.

Reply->

CeCelia Squires • Sep 25, 2018 at 09:32

It should be clear to everyone, Google wants to take over the world using technology! They are blinded to the danger of Islam because of their naïve political belief. Islam's #1 desire is to control the whole world, they will not share with Google! Both are a threat to the world!

Reply->

Jeff Page • Sep 25, 2018 at 09:31

What a crock!!! Nearly every single media company has capitulated to threats from Muslims in one form or the other. In fact, they are pushing for all criticism of Islam to be obliterated from their platforms, they are actively encouraging Muslims to demand what they want in the knowledge that the social media outlets will fully conform to Sharia and they will ban anyone who speaks freely against Islam.

The social media providers were more than happy to provide the time and opportunity to show executions by ISIS of mainly Westerners for month after month with no degree of guilt at the hurt this would cause to relatives of victims. They now enforce their will upon those of us who would fight back and expose Islam in its true light and not in the way that the media try to present it.

It's not solely social media that holds blame for this, they are encouraged by politicians who have their own agendas to try to prevent adverse reports about Islam and Muslims in general who carry out atrocities wherever they may reside in the West. The normal approach by politicians is to constantly lie about Islam and sweep their criminal activities under the carpet. They are responsible for Muslims and the way they disregard our laws, and act out their cultural practices FGM, Grooming, underage marriages etc. All brought to this and other European countries by the ignorance and indifference of politicians who were clueless as to what exactly they were inflicting onto their own people.

These social media outlets want to get a grip, carry out some proper investigations and root out the truth about Islam, not simply take the word of "Imams, Community Leaders" and other self appointed Muslim organisations that have cropped up around the world.

Reply->