Algorithmic probing: Prompting offensive Google results and their moderation

Abstract

Google results have been scrutinized over the years for what they privilege, be it the surface web, the powerful, optimized webpages, the personalized and/or their own properties. For some time now, another type of Google returns also has been the source of attention: the offensive result. The following revisits a selection of offensive and other problematic results found by journalists and researchers alike. In a technique termed ‘algorithmic probing’, the prompting queries are re-run to study what has come of these results in Google Web and Image Search but mainly in Google Autocompletion. The question concerns a different kind of privileging – Google's hierarchy of concerns – or the extent to which certain categories as well as languages are moderated and others less so. In all, it was found that Google heavily moderates religion, ethnicities and sexualities (albeit with gaps) but leaves alone stereotypes of gendered professions as well as ageism. It also moderates to a greater degree in English compared to southern European and Balkan languages. The article concludes with a discussion of the stakes of Google's moderation, including its uneven coverage.

Advancing search engine studies: The evolution of Google critique and intervention

“…On the contrary, with the integration of more and more data-driven algorithms, analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI) in both commercial and public domains, algorithmic bias and asymmetries continue to lead to inequalities and social disadvantages (Allhutter et al, 2020; Benjamin, 2019; Eubanks, 2018). Following this line of research, three contributions to the present special issue explicitly focus on search engine bias and discrimination in the context of extreme-right dynamics of exclusion (Norocel and Lewandowski, 2023), the ethical dimensions of Google Autocomplete (Graham, 2023), and Google's balancing of suggesting and moderating offensive content (Rogers, 2023).…”

“…This special issue collects five original research articles (Haider and Rödl, 2023; Mager, 2023; Norocel and Lewandowski, 2023; Ridgway, 2023; Rogers, 2023) and two invited commentaries (Graham, 2023; Rieder, 2022), all of which are devoted to the state of Google critique and intervention by engaging critically with its study as well as prospecting for alternatives. Three contributions focus on search engine bias and discrimination in the context of right-wing extremism (Norocel and Lewandowski, 2023), Google Autocomplete (Graham, 2023), and content moderation (Rogers, 2023).…”

“…This special issue collects five original research articles (Haider and Rödl, 2023; Mager, 2023; Norocel and Lewandowski, 2023; Ridgway, 2023; Rogers, 2023) and two invited commentaries (Graham, 2023; Rieder, 2022), all of which are devoted to the state of Google critique and intervention by engaging critically with its study as well as prospecting for alternatives. Three contributions focus on search engine bias and discrimination in the context of right-wing extremism (Norocel and Lewandowski, 2023), Google Autocomplete (Graham, 2023), and content moderation (Rogers, 2023). Another three tackle the commercial dynamics of Google, tracing its roots to the first description by Brin and Page (1998) of their PageRank algorithm (Ridgway, 2023), embedding it in the political economy of “technical systems” (Rieder, 2022) and relating it to how search engines contribute to the creation of ignorance (Haider and Rödel, 2023).…”

JASIST Special Issue Editorial: Re‐orienting search engine research in information science

“…A recently published special issue of Big Data and Society (Mager et al, 2023) focuses on "The State of Google Critique and Intervention." The topics covered in this special issue will sound familiar to information science researchers: Methods for investigating offensive search results (Rogers, 2023), data voids and racism (Norocel & Lewandowski, 2023), how Google creates ignorances on the climate crisis (Haider & Rödl, 2023), ethical concerns associated with Google's auto-complete function (Graham, 2023b), European alternatives to Google (Mager, 2023), as well as conceptual development to nuance the critique "big tech" (Rieder, 2022). In the same year a special issue of Social Media and Society appeared under the title "Semantic Media."…”

“…The renewed interest in search engine studies is also shown by the publication of special issues in journals, like this one. A recently published special issue of Big Data and Society (Mager et al, 2023) focuses on “The State of Google Critique and Intervention.” The topics covered in this special issue will sound familiar to information science researchers: Methods for investigating offensive search results (Rogers, 2023), data voids and racism (Norocel & Lewandowski, 2023), how Google creates ignorances on the climate crisis (Haider & Rödl, 2023), ethical concerns associated with Google's auto‐complete function (Graham, 2023b), European alternatives to Google (Mager, 2023), as well as conceptual development to nuance the critique “big tech” (Rieder, 2022). In the same year a special issue of Social Media and Society (Iliadis & Ford, 2023) appeared under the title “Semantic Media.” The majority of contributions in this issue concern, in one way or another, search processes, search engines and address their various implications in how meaning and knowledge emerge in society (Dobreski et al, 2023; Ford & Iliadis, 2023; Giomelakis, 2023; Jobin, 2023; Tripodi & Dave, 2023).…”