Google ‘Responsible’ for Dissemination of Holocaust Denial
In two scathing Guardian articles, this week and last, Carole Cadwalladr outlines how right wing extremists have gamed the Google algorithm in order to present Holocaust denial and vitriolic anti-Semitism as “authoritative” internet responses to “Did the Holocaust happen?” and “Are Jews evil?”
In her December 11 “Google is not just a platform” she tells how her, and everyone’s, internet searching is shaped by the internet and how the internet goliath profits from every ad served on racist right-wing entries.
In “Google, democracy and the truth about internet search” from last week she talks about the threat posed by the search engine’s abrogation of responsibility. It’s not just a threat to civility but to history and democracy.
This isn’t a secret Nazi cell lurking in the shadows. It’s hiding in plain sight.
Never mind “fake news” this is fake history colonizing the top ten of your Jewish searches with hate speech. Cadwalladr calls Google to task as “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.
Dan Friedman is the managing editor of the Forward. Follow him on Twitter at @danfriedmanme
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO