Fox News reports on a strange anomaly when in Google searches for Islam.
If you type “Christianity is ” into the Google search field you get a list of suggested searches, many of them implying an unfavorable view of Christianity:
The same happens for Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism:
One would expect similar results when searching for “Islam.” Yet this is what happens:
Google does not suggest a single search. Is Google censoring searches people are conducting on Islam?
Fox News reports:
According to Google’s Web site, the query suggestions that appear as you type are drawn from from searches you’ve done (if you’re logged in), searches done by users all over the world, sites in the search index and ads in Google’s network.
The company also explains that “We try to filter out suggestions that include pornographic terms, dirty words, and hate and violence terms. If you encounter a term that should not be suggested, please let us know by posting in the Google Web Search Help Forum.”
Perhaps the returned results are so inappropriate that all results have simply been turned off, an option some Internet users label ‘cowardly.’ After all, search for hot-button items such as “scientology is” or “Muhammad is” and the results are even more offensive.
A Google spokesman explained that the weird absence of results is just a software problem: “This is in fact a bug and we’re working to fix it as quickly as we can.” But the company would not respond to requests for clarification.
An intriguing corollary: Google offers search suggestions for future tense queries as well. Ask “Christianity will” and Google suggests “Christianity will end, it will disappear,” and “Christianity will end.” Ask the same about Islam and Google notes that “Islam will dominate the world” and “Islam will destroy Europe.”
The statement that this is a software bug is not credible. Google has automated algorithms to build these suggested searches. Unless someone has created code to block specific searches they would show up. Clearly, someone has blocked common searches on Islam. Why is it more appropriate to block negative or offensive search on Islam than any other major world religion? Clearly, Google can’t block everything. As Fox News reports, searching for “Muhammad is ” yields plenty of results that will incense Muslim fanatics.
Bing, Microsoft’s competing search engine, provides the following suggestions for Christianity and Islam:
Apparently, Microsoft does not feel compelled to censor searches. This is indeed a strange reversal in the image of the two companies.
Google is the most pervasive search tool on the internet. It is critical for Google’s preeminent status to stay above any suspicion that it introduces biases in its searches. Google needs to clarify whether this is official Google policy or the work of a rogue programmer and rectify this issue immediately.
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