(Newswire.net — June 12, 2016) — A tweet showing Google search results when typing “Three black teenagers” compared to results after search for “Three white teenagers” sparked comments on whether Google search is racially biased, the Washington post reported.
When searching for white teenagers, the results show various photos of smiling white males and females. However, if in the search you change the word “White” to “Black”, you get a variety of mugshots, with a few pretty stock photos.
The obvious contrast sparked a wide debate from aggravated comments urging Google to review its search algorithm to those who say that the results are simply the reflection of reality shown through statistical data.
The third type of comments belong to those who say it is neither, arguing that it is simply a lack of black teenager stock photos combined with poor optimization on the Internet.
“The results were formed through the algorithm they set up. They [Google] aren’t racist but I feel like they should have more control over something like that,” explained the author of the Google search video, the video that sparked heated discussions, to the Guardian, adding that the result of his post shocked him
The tweet has since been retweeted by more than 60,100 users and favourited nearly 55,500 times since it was posted on Tuesday, with the video going viral after entertainment website World Star Hip Hop posted it.
Google search critics also reffered to similiar results when searching for “unprofessional hairstyles for work”, showing natural African-American hair, while “Professional hairstyles for work” search shows pictures of blonde, white women.
It is by chance that the author of the viral video about black and white teenagers and the search engines, used Google. Other major search platforms have similar issues. Yahoo search shows similar results, however, Bing goes even further. When searching for black teenagers on Bing you find a lot of smiling African Americans in photos merged with mugshots.
On the other hand, if you look for three white teenagers on Bing, you’ll see nothing but stock photos of smiling faces.
The issue, however, drew attention on a higher scale. When it comes to searching for information on the presidential candidates, the story becomes even more interesting.
The YouTube news channel SourceFed raised suspicions that Google may be manipulating autocomplete in the search field. The video published 9 June 2016 shows that if you type words Hillary Clinton cri, Google will autocomplete terms like Crime Reform, Crisis or a Crime Bill 1994.
When you type the same in Google’s competitor Yahoo, autocomplete will finish “cri” with Criminal Charges, Crimes, Criminal, etc.
Do we search different things on different search engines while typing the same words? It is more likely that different search platforms have different databases, or that the companies are trying to manipulate searches by deliberately hiding or displaying relevant messages in order to influence the user’s opinion.
In addition to its claims that Google is manipulating search results, the SourcFed video continues by typing “Hillary Clinton Crime Reform” into Google Edge, a new explorer that is available in Windows 10 OS.Surprisingly, there is no information on the topic, as if the reform never existed. So how does Google have an entirely different database than its new “improved” search platform?
The SourcFed video goes further by providing evidence that people are more interested in Hillary Crimes information than her Crime Reform, however, “Google don’t want you to know that,” SourceFed concluded, emphasizing that there no intention of accusing anyone of anything.