Google is not ‘just’ a platform. It frames, shapes and distorts how we see the world
Did the Holocaust
really happen? No. The Holocaust did not really happen. Six million Jews did
not die. It is a Jewish conspiracy theory spread by vested interests to obscure
the truth. The truth is that there is no evidence any people were gassed in any
camp. The Holocaust did not happen.
Are you happy with
that answer? Happy that if you have children, this is what they’re being
exposed to? That all across America and France and Hungary and Holland and
Britain, when people ask that question, this is what they are clicking on and
reading and absorbing? No? Well, then, we really, really need to talk about
Google. Right now. Because these are the “facts” of what happened according to
the number one source of information to the entire planet. Type this into your
Google search bar: “did the hol”. And Google suggests
you search for this: “Did the Holocaust happen?”
And this is the
answer: no. The top result is a link to stormfront.org, a neo-Nazi site and an
article entitled: “Top 10 reasons why the Holocaust didn’t happen”. The third
result is the article “The Holocaust Hoax; IT NEVER HAPPENED”. The fifth is “50
reasons why the Holocaust didn’t happen.” The seventh is a YouTube video “Did
the Holocaust really happen?” The ninth is “Holocaust Against Jews is a Total
Lie – Proof.”
This is what Danny
Sullivan, the editor of SearchEngineLand,
a leading expert on Google search, means when he says “something has gone
terribly wrong with Google’s algorithm”. Stormfront describes itself as “the
voice of the new, embattled white minority… a community of racial realists and
idealists”. It’s the kind of site that Gideon Falter, the chair of the Campaign Against Antisemitism,
says is being used to radicalise a new generation of extreme, violent,
rightwing individuals. It’s where Anders Breivik used to hang out online. It’s
where, on its discussion forum, users gathered to celebrate the murder of Jo
Cox.
And, according to
Google, it’s the most authoritative source on the internet on the “question” of
whether or not the Holocaust actually happened. Sceptical, educated people will
of course look for other evidence. These are the searches that Google lists at
the bottom of the page as suggestions for what to search next: “Holocaust never
happened theory” “proof the Holocaust happened” “Holocaust fake proof” “Holocaust
never happened movie” “Holocaust didn’t happen conspiracy” “did the Holocaust
happen during ww2.”
A week ago I wrote in
the Observer about how rightwing websites have successfully colonised a vast swathe
of the internet. About how they have gamed Google’s algorithm. About how
Jonathan Albright, an associate professor at Elon University in the US, had
mapped them to show how they have become a vast and growing ecosystem that is
encroaching on the mainstream news and information infrastructure like a
cancer. How Google, with all its money and resources, is being owned by hate
sites who have hijacked its search results.
One week on, Google is
still quietly pretending there’s nothing wrong, while surreptitiously going in
and fixing the most egregious examples we published last week. It refused to
comment on the search results I found – such as the autocomplete suggestion that
“jews are evil”, with eight of its 10 top results confirming they are – and,
instead, hand-tweaked a handful of the results. Or as, we call it in the media,
it “edited” them. It did this without acknowledging there was any problem or
explaining the basis on which it is altering its results, or why, or what its
future editorial policy will be. Its search box is no longer suggesting that
Jews are still evil but it’s still suggesting “Islam should be destroyed”. And,
it is spreading and broadcasting the information as fact.
This is hate speech.
It’s lies. It’s racist propaganda. And Google is disseminating it. It is what
the data scientist Cathy O’Neil calls a “co-conspirator”. And so are we.
Because what happens next is entirely down to us. This is our internet. And we
need to make a decision: do we believe it’s acceptable to spread hate speech,
to promulgate lies as the world becomes a darker, murkier place?
Because Google is only
beyond the reach of the law if it we allow it to be. It’s selling ads against
these searches. It’s profiting from Holocaust denial. Its algorithm is helping
Stormfront reach new recruits – the next generation of Thomas Mairs and
Breiviks – all the while adding to its bottom line, its quarterly profits. This
week, Chi Onwurah, the shadow secretary of state for culture, media and sport
tweeted her concern about the subject but noted “I’m sure @google will argue
they aren’t responsible for the results”.
Only, here’s the
thing: that’s exactly what they are. Responsible. Google writes the code that
drives the algorithm that returns the results. How they write this code, what
they use to assess authority and credibility, how that enables Stormfront to
spread its lies and spew its poison is entirely its responsibility. When the
shadow minister whose brief this includes fails to realise this, we have some
idea of the scale of the problem.
Our problem too:
because do we let these multinational corporations own us and all aspects of
our lives? Is that the plan? The Google Transparency
Project has documented how the company has become one of the biggest
spenders on government lobbyists in the US. It has also shown how in the US, UK
and Europe there has been an open door between government and senior positions
at Google – the GTP found 251 instances of staff moving between the two in the
US and 80 in Europe.
That is how power
works. This is how power works too: the last time I wrote a story that Google
didn’t like, I got a call from Peter Barron, Google’s UK head of press, who was
at pains to point out the positive and beneficial relationship that Google has
with the Guardian Media Group, our owners.
Google’s business
model is built around the idea that it’s a neutral platform. That its magic
algorithm waves its magic wand and delivers magic results without the sullying
intervention of any human. It desperately does not want to be seen as a media
company, as a content provider, as a news and information medium that should be
governed by the same rules that apply to other media. But this is exactly what
it is. This week’s editing of the content around evil Jews has demonstrated
exactly that. And our failure – the failure of our politicians and the
mainstream press – to reckon with it makes us an accessory to the crime. We are
colluding with it in broadcasting hate speech and lies.
The right is on the
rise everywhere. And that includes on the internet. It is creating more content
that is travelling wider and further. It has changed both the questions being
asked – did the Holocaust actually happen? Are Jews evil? Should Islam be
destroyed – and answered. It is in the process of remaking the world, rewriting
history, rewiring minds, changing the conversation, reframing the questions and
answers. It’s our world. Our internet. Our history. And we have to wake up to
what is happening right now on the laptop on our desk, the phone in our pocket,
the tablet in our children’s bedrooms. This is our choice: do something. Or
accept the truth according to Google. That six million didn’t die. That the
Holocaust never happened. That we didn’t care enough to remember.
see also
