Google Search Is Quietly Damaging Democracy

https://www.wired.com/story/google-search-quietly-damaging-democracy/

by CharlesW • 4 years ago

35 9 4 years ago

Not as much as TV news, which on both sides push biased agenda non-stop

NBJack• 4 years ago

One of the saddest trends in this day and age is the centralization of search. You can debate whether Google search has gone downhill, you can debate whether or not it hurts anything right now, but it is hard to argue that Google is NOT the central 'authority' for most folks on the web. They have a heavy influence on discoverability.

That kind of centralized power is ripe for abuse. If it isn't already, it likely will be.

marginalia_nu• 4 years ago

Google's dominant position makes them a problem for democracy even without malice. The problem is very close to that of having only a single newspaper. No matter what you choose to show, no matter how you select it, you will unavoidably create a bias.

swivelmaster• 4 years ago

Google’s knowledge graph feature is just so fundamentally broken that it should probably be subject so some kind of government lawsuit. Google has a near-monopoly in search and has been perceived as the way to get the “correct” answers to questions for a very long time, so adding a feature that confidently provides the wrong answers at the top of the search results is a pretty astounding level of negligence.

throw149102• 4 years ago

First of all, I have to say I hate how the author not only mentions their book, but puts a huge ad cutting into the text telling us we can buy it at "Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Target". This makes it clear to me (regardless if the author has a point!) that the author is financially benefitting off of selling me fear.

Secondly, I hate how liberal thinkpiece authors can never lay the blame at the hands of the people using tech. If you google something as contentious as "Washington Times Antifa Evidence", and you don't even have the integrity to scroll down the page to see if there's any disagreement, then there is nothing Google can do to protect you from the conmen of the world.

Any attempt to "fact-check" will result in an extreme backlash, as conservative laypeople will rightly notice the liberal-slant, and conservative lawmakers will use that as an excuse to punish Google. It will likely be ineffective in changing people's minds, and it may result in serious costs to Google as a company.

dublin• 4 years ago

Once upon a time, Google had unbelievable public trust.

In recent years, though, Google has become actively evil, and squandered that trust to the point that no one really trusts Google anymore, but since we allowed the big tech companies to crush their competition through both acquisitions and illegal trade practices, we have no real viable alternatives, either.

There is no good way out of this mess. This is why the FTC and SEC should never have allowed these companies to accrue this kind of power and control in the first place. Where is Teddy Roosevelt when you need him to bust up some trusts?

nomel• 4 years ago

In recent years, though, Google has become actively evil

At least they're self aware: https://gizmodo.com/google-removes-nearly-all-mentions-of-do...

Crash0v3rid3• 4 years ago

Did you read the article or just the title?

Title: Google Removes 'Don't Be Evil' Clause From Its Code of Conduct

This is the last paragraph:

The updated version of Google’s code of conduct still retains one reference to the company’s unofficial motto—the final line of the document is still: “And remember… don’t be evil, and if you see something that you think isn’t right – speak up!”

I dunno how this FUD still gets shared here.

ChrisArchitect• 4 years ago

Tired: Wired

Google Search Is Quietly Damaging Democracy

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