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Google has once again been called out for algorithmically encouraging the spread of dubious, politically charged speculation and misinformation around a topical news event.<\/p>\n
In the latest instance of the algorithmic amplification of misinformation, the news event in question is a shooting in a Texas church on Sunday. Authorities have\u00a0identified<\/a>\u00a026-year-old Devin Patrick Kelley as the perpetrator.<\/p>\n Users of Google\u2019s search engine who conduct internet searches for queries such as \u201cwho is Devin Patrick Kelley?\u201d \u2014 or just do a simple search for his name \u2014 can be exposed to tweets claiming the shooter was a Muslim convert; or a member of Antifa; or a Democrat supporter\u2026<\/p>\n Google’s ‘Popular On Twitter’ news feature is a misinformation gutter. Search for Devin Patrick Kelley just now surfaced these four items. pic.twitter.com\/06rcPOgx5b<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Justin Hendrix (@justinhendrix) November 6, 2017<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The core issue is that Google is prominently placing unverified claims high up in its hierarchy of relevance-ranked data \u2014 aka \u201cGoogle search results\u201d \u2014 which the company has itself previously likened to a library index of truthful data. (Albeit it\u2019s demonstrably a pretty skew-able index when your passing \u201coracle of truth\u201d can be Julian Assange\u2019s Twitter feed\u2026 ).<\/p>\n The section where this content is being embedded within Google\u2019s search results is powered by its access to Twitter\u2019s firehose of tweets, combined, it says, with its own ranking algorithms \u2014 which apparently also favor the kind of wild, clickbait-y and unverified claims that have been shown to spread like wildfire on Facebook (aka\u00a0fake news<\/a>).<\/p>\n The dynamic handful of tweets that Google\u2019s algorithms choose to showcase within search results are sometimes labeled \u201cPopular on Twitter\u201d (or else just \u201con Twitter\u201d).<\/p>\n They do appear below a \u201cTop Stories\u201d section, which sits at the top of results. But the Twitter content is still very prominently displayed near the top of Google search results \u2014 meaning internet searchers looking for genuine information around a developing news story may well be being unwittingly exposed to entirely unverified claims, including maliciously motivated, politically charged misinformation.<\/p>\n (On that wider topic, Google, Twitter and Facebook have all been giving evidence to Congress<\/a>\u00a0this month about how their platforms were \u2014 and still are being \u2014 manipulated as part of Russian political disinformation campaigns targeting U.S. voters.)<\/p>\n Asked about the Texas-related misinformation it\u2019s algorithmically surfacing now, a spokesperson for Google provided us with the following statement:\u00a0\u201cThe search results appearing from Twitter, which surface based on our ranking algorithms, are changing second by second and represent a dynamic conversation that is going on in near real-time.<\/p>\n \u201cFor the queries in question, they are not the first results we show on the page. Instead, they appear after news sources, including our Top Stories carousel which we have been constantly updating. We\u2019ll continue to look at ways to improve how we rank tweets that appear in search.\u201d<\/p>\n At the time of writing Twitter had not responded to a request for comment.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not clear to what extent Twitter\u2019s platform is feeding Google\u2019s ranking algorithms at this point, i.e. via the dynamics at play on its own platform that can amplify certain tweets \u2014 such as bot networks working together to retweet particular politically charged content to try to get it trending. But it seems likely that the workings and dynamics of both platforms are at least partially involved in surfacing this content.<\/p>\n We confirmed that various tweets are being surfaced via Google searches by conducting some of our own searches on the topic. We were shown various additional\/different tweets \u2014 including suggesting the shooter was an atheist; or Antifa; as well as tweets from some established news outlets\u2026<\/p>\n Safe to say, it\u2019s a bundled mix of claims from all sorts of sources that requires the person exposed to the content to have the critical faculties to sift \u201cpotentially accurate\u201d from \u201cat best highly speculative\u201d or even \u201cout-and-out nonsense.\u201d<\/p>\n A month ago<\/a> we reported on a similar issue with Google search results following another U.S. mass shooting when Google search results were distributing unverified claims (from 4chan) directly within its Top Stories section, i.e. not just via the \u201con Twitter\u201d segment of search results, which was arguably even worse.<\/p>\n Though it\u2019s still a pretty fine line to expect the average internet user to be able to critically and dynamically sort a random selection of tweets about a topical news event that are actively being lifted high into their field of view \u2014 alongside other types of content which Google also implies answer the core search query.<\/p>\n Safe to say, the algorithmic architecture that underpins so much of the content internet users are exposed to via tech giants\u2019 mega platforms continues to enable lies to run far faster than truth online by favoring flaming nonsense (and\/or flagrant\u00a0calumny) over more robustly sourced information.<\/p>\n Even as the content that internet users are being exposed to has become a very blurry blend, as increasingly dominant tech platforms algorithmically mix information that might correctly answer a query\/need alongside viral\/provocative claims intended to incentivize clicks\/engagement \u2014 and thus generate more revenue for the underlying tech platform.<\/p>\n Such automated and mixed motivations are writ very large indeed in our modern digital \u201cage of misinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Featured Image: Robert Scoble<\/a>\/Flickr<\/a> UNDER A CC BY 2.0<\/a> LICENSE<\/small><\/p>\n Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/ozlxnA1P8Zo\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Google has once again been called out for algorithmically encouraging the spread of dubious, politically charged speculation and misinformation around a topical news event. In the latest instance of the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[10,7,14,15,6,12,11],"class_list":["post-9851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-update","tag-computer-news","tag-downloads","tag-microsoft-download-news","tag-networking-updates","tag-technology-update","tag-wordpress-plugin-download","tag-wordpress-theme-download"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n
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<\/p>\nScreenshot 2017-11-06 07.37.18<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n
<\/p>\nScreenshot 2017-11-06 07.37.10<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n
<\/p>\nGoogle’s ‘On Twitter’ section<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n
<\/p>\ndevin patrick kelley<\/h3>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n