 |
“Today, in a world where tens of
thousands of pages are coming online every minute of every day, there are new
ways that people try to game the system. The most high profile of these issues
is the phenomenon of “fake news”. . . While this problem is different from
issues in the past, our goal remains the same—to provide people with access to
relevant information from the most reliable sources available. And while we may
not always get it right, we’re making good progress in tackling the problem.”
– Ben Gomes, VP of search
engineering at Google
In 2016, the term “fake news”
became ubiquitous. Outlandish stories continued to make headlines, even on
search results and social platforms. The issue became so problematic and
widespread that Politifact named fake news its 2016 lie of the year.
While many view fake news as a
problem stemming from Facebook and other social media websites, Google is just
as responsible for spreading misinformation.
The Outline recently ran a piece
that clearly displayed that many of Google’s snippets are nonsensical,
misleading, incorrect and sometimes just outright fake.
This isn’t the first time that
Google’s search algorithms have landed the company in hot water.
In December 2016, if users
searched the phrase, “did the Holocaust happen,” Google would return a false
article from a neo-Nazi website entitled, “Top 10 reasons why the Holocaust
didn’t happen.”
These kinds of incidents have
finally sparked Google to announce changes to its search algorithm that will
combat fake news from spreading along with the addition of reporting tools for
users to leverage.
How Google is Fighting Fake News
The recent alterations Google has
made to search are geared toward improving the quality of the materials that
populate the SERPs by surfacing more authoritative sites and demoting
low-quality content, as well as combating fake news; a term that Google’s Ben
Gomes defines as, “. . . . Content on the web [that] has contributed to the
spread of blatantly misleading, low quality, offensive or downright false
information.”
This change should effectively
prevent incidents like the aforementioned white supremacy article from reaching
the top of the SERPs and counter the proliferation of such unfounded claims.
Additionally, Google has
implemented a new reporting feature on its autocomplete function to allow users
to inform the company of misleading or violent content populating in the search
bar.
Similarly, the search engine is
also placing a “Feedback” button on the bottom right of all of its snippets so
that searchers can report any incorrect, falsely divisive, or other forms of
inaccurate data.
Google has also recognized that
harmless queries entered into its search bar are serving up “offensive or
clearly misleading content” that is not what users were looking for. Google
claims that this “small set of queries” only happens approximately 0.25 percent
of the time, but that still equates to five billion annual searches when you
remember that Google processes roughly two trillion searches per year.
Alongside the new feedback tools,
Google has also altered the guidelines by which Search Quality Raters – who are
real people, mind you – identify what might be offensive, false, of otherwise
harmful materials with increased accuracy and specificity.
The new guidelines put forth by
Google focus on helping Search Raters establish the types of materials that
include “. . . misleading information, unexpected offensive results, hoaxes,
and unsupported conspiracy theories.”
While the feedback from these
individuals doesn’t necessarily impact search rankings, it does help Google
establish where its algorithm is falling short so that the company can course
correct.
As far as its algorithms are
concerned, Google is changing some of the signals that influence search
rankings by heightening those that demote low-quality content.
Finally, the search provider is
also attempting to shed some light on why some rather unsavory content makes
its way into the autocomplete section by making its policy (which Google also
updated due to recent events) openly available to the public so that everyone
can understand the process Google goes through when autocomplete needs to be
amended.
Questions of Concern
While reporting or serving up
accurate and honest information is objectively a good thing, there are some
concerns as to how Google chooses to manage this information and if the company
should be in charge of such a task at all.
Some might equate this move to a
form of censorship in the search results; something that Google has been
accused of in the past. During the 2016 election cycle, the search engine was
accused of manipulating autocomplete to remove negative proposals about Hillary
Clinton.
Many YouTube influencers feel that
they are also being censored by YouTube’s “restricted mode” which has
ultimately removed a sizeable amount of LGBT content from the platform.
Additionally, many of the site’s top creators are also feeling another form of
censorship on YouTube as videos are demonetized for containing strong language,
sexually suggestive content, and videos that discuss “controversial or
sensitive subjects.”
And with the question of Net
neutrality looming in the minds of every Internet-loving American, it can
quickly feel as if much of the Internet’s free-flow of information is having a
stranglehold placed on it in favor of a controlled flow of data.
And then there’s the issue of
determining what “fake news” is. Formerly unfounded claims about government
programs like MK Ultra seem like the ravings of a madman shouting his manifesto
in the park, but ultimately turned out to be completely true.
Under Google, this type of
information would be suppressed and demoted for appearing fake, when in reality
it is factual.
All of these factors place
Google’s credibility and capability for handling such immensely important deeds
into question.
Despite concerns, however, these
implementations have already been put into effect. In all likelihood, this move
will help to eliminate much of the false information on the Internet from
making its way onto the SERPs and assist in creating a more informed society.
Society, however, must keep a watchful eye on issues like fake news, Net
neutrality, and other means that could potentially restrict the free flow of
data.
Do you think that YouTube creators
are being censored? What is your opinion on Net neutrality?
No comments:
Post a Comment