Google staff discussed tweaking search results to counter travel ban: WSJ

 

FILE PHOTO - A Google sign is seen during the WAIC (World Artificial Intelligence Conference) in Shanghai, China, September 17, 2018. REUTERS/Aly Song

 

(Reuters) - Google employees brainstormed ways to alter search functions to counter the Trump administration's controversial 2017 travel ban, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing internal emails.

 

Google employees discussed how they could tweak the company's search-related functions to show users how to contribute to pro-immigration organizations and contact lawmakers and government agencies, the WSJ said. The ideas were not implemented.

 

President Donald Trump's travel ban temporarily barred visitors and immigrants from seven majority Muslim countries. It spurred public outcry and was revised several times. Trump said the travel ban was needed to protect the United States against attacks by Islamist militants, and the Supreme Court upheld the measure in June.

 

The Google employees proposed ways to "leverage" search functions and take steps to counter what they considered to be "islamophobic, algorithmically biased results from search terms 'Islam', 'Muslim', 'Iran', etc." and "prejudiced, algorithmically biased search results from search terms 'Mexico', 'Hispanic', 'Latino', etc," the Journal added, quoting from the emails.

 

A Google spokesperson said the emails represented brainstorming and none of the ideas were implemented. She said the company does not manipulate search results or modify products to promote political views.

 

"Our processes and policies would not have allowed for any manipulation of search results to promote political ideologies," the spokesperson said in a statement.

 

(Reporting by Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-09-21

12 minutes ago, webfact said:

Google employees discussed how they could tweak the company's search-related functions to show users how to contribute to pro-immigration organizations.

The Google employees proposed ways to "leverage" search functions and take steps to counter what they considered to be "islamophobic, algorithmically biased results from search terms 'Islam', 'Muslim', 'Iran', etc." and "prejudiced, algorithmically biased search results from search terms 'Mexico', 'Hispanic', 'Latino', etc," the Journal added, quoting from the emails.

Now how could that be a problem? As long as Google is against Trump, This should not be an issue, and should not be in the news. People should boycott WSJ for running this story.

Edited September 21, 20187 yr by dcutman

This is very serious, any American's reading this that aren't liberal must Vote till it hurts. Got to stop this madness!