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Title: Google Censors Guns, Removes Shopping Results
Source:
Medium
URL Source: https://medium.com/@douglasmatthews ... -shopping-results-5cf9c7a3d995
Published: Feb 27, 2018
Author: Douglas Stewart
Post Date: 2018-02-27 20:07:05 by Hondo68
Keywords: None
Views: 746
Comments: 7
It appears that Google may have silently joined the ranks of one side of the gun control debate. On February 26, Twitter users LADowd and Xavier Dreyman noticed that results in the most-used search engine in the world were returning nothing in the “Shopping” tab when any query included a gun part, model, or manufacturer. His first result was for the rather broad term of “rifle scope”. This netted zero results while providing just two sponsored results below the main search. Curiosity must’ve taken over and he continued on looking for “remington razor” which also netted a whopping 0 results. Turns out, the problem was that Remington is most known for firearms. Twitter users became even more curious. Myself and others decided to test this and any shopping result for anything related to “Remington”, “Glock”, and “Colt” turns up nothing. Twitter user “Stigcicle” found a more concise list that includes censoring “Steyr”, an Australian town has the misfortune of sharing the name with a gun manufacturer. This includes shopping for parts for your Dodge Colt; if you still have one it is likely in need of many parts anyway. In order to verify, I took a video of the search results to confirm. Sure enough, it returns 0 results. In the wake of the Marjory Douglas Stoneman shooting that left 17 dead, renewed calls for gun control are center stage. So are the demands for consumers to boycott the NRA; companies that have business relationships are also facing mounting pressure from consumers and activists. However, Google’s actions in the wake of the this tragedy are not a surprise given the company’s known political stances. What is surprising is the action was taken in silence. In a time when so many are proud to announce their disagreements with the NRA, one cant help but wonder if this is Google’s way of testing the waters. After all, if it backfires, they can easily claim it was the mistake of some unaccountable department with nameless employees. If it wins, they claim victory. It almost looks strategic. Poster Comment: Tried a search for "Colt 45 Malt Liquor" = Your search - colt 45 malt liquor - did not match any shopping results.. Tried "Olde English 800 Malt Liquor" = comes up with 6 pages of results. Censored!
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#1. To: hondo68 (#0)
(Edited)
Some of these search engines keep a profile on you. They do return different results to different users using the exact same queries. But they are multinational and they do implement a fine-grained response based on past searches you've done, links you've clicked, what's trending on popular pages, etc. So this report is suggestive but anecdotal so far. DuckDuckGo returns normal results for "Colt 45 Malt Liquor". And it returns handgun results if you search just for "Colt 45". But Google and Bing and Yahoo can produce some very different results for different people searching the same terms. Back when they were all new to the search business, the search results were uniform for all users. Since then, they tailor the search results.
I just checked Google for "Colt 45" and I got both liquor and handgun results. Also some video links for some crappy rapper who apparently uses that name.
Click on "Shopping" to get it off of the default "All". That was my first visit to Google in months. I don't go there, any more than I visit Facebook.
Their censorship isn't perfected yet, IMO. If you search "DS Arms" Shopping tab, it comes up with some scope parts etc., so it needs work yet from their perspective. Still blocked in Shopping, but stores appear in search. "Fuck you, Google" returns about 6,810,000 results, however.
It appears this was more of a Thing than I realized. Washington Examiner: Google tried censoring 'gun' shopping searches. It backfired: In the wake of the Florida school shooting, Google decided to take a stand. The gatekeeper of the Internet decided to filter shopping searches that included the term “gun.” It didn't go so well. Early Tuesday morning, Internet shoppers started noticing and documenting the digital gaffes. Users received error notices when they searched for glue guns and water guns, toy guns and airsoft guns, nail guns and nerf guns. The algorithm is apparently so strict that even the color "burgundy" triggered an error because it includes "gun" in the spelling. This set off something of a parlor game on social media. Turns out, adults don’t like it when faceless bureaucrats try enforcing arbitrary restrictions — federal, corporate, or otherwise. Casey “Stable Genius” Smith found that Google now censors “Laguna Beach." Technousayt observed that the beloved Tom Cruise film about beach volleyball, “Top Gun,” also could not be found. KingPrewyoko noticed that a search for American hard-rock super-group Velvet Revolver did not return any results. Neither did searches for the Sex Pistols, the Indianapolis Colts, or the word “trifle." The benevolent nanny nerds at Google quickly began cleaning up their mistake. Many of the search terms had been restored by the early evening, but not before an important lesson was learned: Attempts to coddle adults will always backfire. Granted, Google is a private company. If they think they can help keep our streets safe by banning the sale of guns and gun-related paraphernalia on their website, go for it. But is that effective? No, not at all. As the Washington Post noted half a decade ago, it’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to purchase a firearm through the world wide web. Even the most upstanding citizen can’t log on, make a purchase, and then lock and load. They can make the purchase, but then the gun has to be shipped to a licensed firearm dealer and they still have to go through a background check. By design, it's a laborious process. So, in the end, Google’s war on the gun was really quite silly and pointless. The virtue-signaling stunt only exposed their own stupidity.
#2. To: hondo68 (#0)
#3. To: Tooconservative (#2)
(Edited)
the most-used search engine in the world were returning nothing in the “Shopping” tab
#4. To: hondo68 (#3)
#5. To: Tooconservative, *Bang List* (#4)
That was my first visit to Google in months.
#6. To: hondo68 (#0)
#7. To: Hank Rearden, hondo68, All (#6)
Google disables shopping search for any query where the string "gun" appears... even if it's inside a none gun word, such as laGUNa pic.twitter.com/Hk04BUPKGC — Casey "Stable Genius" Smith (@x0x0x00x0x0) February 27, 2018 They just did it because earlier no gun related search returned results. Not even Top Gun! pic.twitter.com/RyapqoNZAE — sigmasal (@technousayt) February 27, 2018 Here are three examples of brands affected by the filtering of words related to 'gun' by @Google.
In addition, Google has either not adjusted the filtering for the word 'rifle' or the company really dislikes a certain English dessert. ???? pic.twitter.com/Ru6SJHNhqF — ♔ Prewyoko (@KingPrewyoko) February 27, 2018
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