Democrats Pressure Google to 'Fix' Abortion Searches
Jun 20, 2022 2:54:11 GMT -5
Post by PurplePuppy on Jun 20, 2022 2:54:11 GMT -5
Democrats Pressure Google to 'Fix' Abortion Searches That Don't Send Women to an Abortionist
BY RICK MORAN JUN 19, 2022 10:05 AM ET
Gaming Google’s search algorithms is an art form that few have mastered, although many have claimed otherwise. The fact is, those algorithms are proprietary information and are tailored to the individual user.
Democrats and abortionists are angry at how Google’s search engine allows some pregnant women to escape the clutches of abortionists by listing links to “pregnancy crisis centers” instead of NARAL-approved abortion providers.
The crisis centers use standard Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques, so it’s inevitable that at least some organizations trying to steer pregnant women away from abortion would end up grouped on the same page with those who want to kill babies.
It’s outrageous, say many Democrats in Congress. Google should fix its algorithms so that confused, frightened, and desperate women are convinced to abort their child with no chance for anyone to give them an alternative course of action.
The Hill:
Thirteen senators and eight representatives signed a letter to Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google parent company Alphabet Inc., dated Friday in which they highlighted a report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) that showed that in 13 states with trigger laws, searches for “abortion pill” or “abortion clinic near me” showed clinics that did not provide those services 11 percent of the time.
What is the Center for Countering Digital Hate doing investigating abortion search results? Apparently, it’s “hateful” that 13 state legislatures passed laws that would trigger an abortion ban automatically if Roe v. Wade is declared illegal by the Supreme Court.
It’s “hateful” to keep women out of the clutches of abortionists.
Those clinics, which CCDH noted are referred to as “pregnancy resource centers” or “crisis pregnancy centers,” generally seek to dissuade people from having abortions and instead urge them to choose adoption or motherhood.
This just can’t be allowed in America, say Democrats. Presenting the other side in the abortion argument to women is un-American and should be prevented at all costs.
“This problem is even more pronounced on Google Maps, where CCDH found that 37% of search results were for anti-abortion fake clinics. Google should not be displaying anti-abortion fake clinics or crisis pregnancy centers in search results for users that are searching for an ‘abortion clinic’ or ‘abortion pill.’ If Google must continue showing these misleading results in search results and Google Maps, the results should, at the very least, be appropriately labeled,” the lawmakers wrote.
The lawmakers acknowledged that Google did label ads that came from such clinics, but said these disclaimers could still be glanced over easily and were not applied at all on Google Search for non-sponsored search results.
It will be fascinating to see how Google responds to this request. They’ve been claiming for years that any anti-conservative bias in their search results is entirely coincidental and they can’t control how results are listed with that degree of accuracy.
Now Democrats want Google to pinpoint differences between abortion providers and anti-abortion advocates and prevent any links to the latter from showing up in searches for the former. Most crisis pregnancy centers are upfront about their mission and don’t try to hide anything. It’s not clear if Google could separate them or not.
Democrats and their allies in the abortion industry are trying to muddy the waters prior to the Dobbs decision.
link
BY RICK MORAN JUN 19, 2022 10:05 AM ET
Gaming Google’s search algorithms is an art form that few have mastered, although many have claimed otherwise. The fact is, those algorithms are proprietary information and are tailored to the individual user.
Democrats and abortionists are angry at how Google’s search engine allows some pregnant women to escape the clutches of abortionists by listing links to “pregnancy crisis centers” instead of NARAL-approved abortion providers.
The crisis centers use standard Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques, so it’s inevitable that at least some organizations trying to steer pregnant women away from abortion would end up grouped on the same page with those who want to kill babies.
It’s outrageous, say many Democrats in Congress. Google should fix its algorithms so that confused, frightened, and desperate women are convinced to abort their child with no chance for anyone to give them an alternative course of action.
The Hill:
Thirteen senators and eight representatives signed a letter to Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google parent company Alphabet Inc., dated Friday in which they highlighted a report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) that showed that in 13 states with trigger laws, searches for “abortion pill” or “abortion clinic near me” showed clinics that did not provide those services 11 percent of the time.
What is the Center for Countering Digital Hate doing investigating abortion search results? Apparently, it’s “hateful” that 13 state legislatures passed laws that would trigger an abortion ban automatically if Roe v. Wade is declared illegal by the Supreme Court.
It’s “hateful” to keep women out of the clutches of abortionists.
Those clinics, which CCDH noted are referred to as “pregnancy resource centers” or “crisis pregnancy centers,” generally seek to dissuade people from having abortions and instead urge them to choose adoption or motherhood.
This just can’t be allowed in America, say Democrats. Presenting the other side in the abortion argument to women is un-American and should be prevented at all costs.
“This problem is even more pronounced on Google Maps, where CCDH found that 37% of search results were for anti-abortion fake clinics. Google should not be displaying anti-abortion fake clinics or crisis pregnancy centers in search results for users that are searching for an ‘abortion clinic’ or ‘abortion pill.’ If Google must continue showing these misleading results in search results and Google Maps, the results should, at the very least, be appropriately labeled,” the lawmakers wrote.
The lawmakers acknowledged that Google did label ads that came from such clinics, but said these disclaimers could still be glanced over easily and were not applied at all on Google Search for non-sponsored search results.
It will be fascinating to see how Google responds to this request. They’ve been claiming for years that any anti-conservative bias in their search results is entirely coincidental and they can’t control how results are listed with that degree of accuracy.
Now Democrats want Google to pinpoint differences between abortion providers and anti-abortion advocates and prevent any links to the latter from showing up in searches for the former. Most crisis pregnancy centers are upfront about their mission and don’t try to hide anything. It’s not clear if Google could separate them or not.
Democrats and their allies in the abortion industry are trying to muddy the waters prior to the Dobbs decision.
link