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Trump Accuses Google of Burying Conservative News in Search Results

nytimes.com

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Re: Trump Accuses Google of Burying Conservative News in Search Results

#81

Post by michaelmrose »

core-questions wrote: post #72
michaelmrose wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that a search engine has such a singular importance in deciding what the public sees. The very reason you would desire regulation is the very reason that you don't want the government regulating it. If google fails its userbase they can switch to a different search engine in 30 seconds by opening a new tab. How fast can you change governments?

> If google fails its userbase If their userbase can actually tell that they are _being_ failed. I don't know that this is deliberate and not just a result of SEO and ranking algorithms, but if what we see is being influenced, how would we know, and how would we generate enough energy to actually have a significant number of people digitally uproot themselves in order to force Google to respond somehow? > they can sw…

> Happens every 4-8 years and takes a few months. Fairly well-oiled process, at this point.

Last time I recall the candidate that would likely have done well for us was cheated in the primary and then the minority elected a criminal with dementia. Before that we had an authoritarian who at least seemed to want to help the country even at the expense of our rights for 8 years. Before that we had an incompetent drunk for 8 years.

Hows that hope and change working for us lately?

Re: Trump Accuses Google of Burying Conservative News in Search Results

#82

Post by Eridrus »

tj-teej wrote: post #71

Why isn't the problem that Google has a monopoly on search? IF (a big IF) Google was actually biased, you could go to their competitor. But if there's no other real competitor then IMO the solution isn't to regulate Google, but to fix root cause problems which led to there only being one company controlling all search (AKA breaking up monopolies)

The issue here isn't that conservatives can't go somewhere else to get their news, the issue is that everyone involved in this debate wants to have their view of what people should read imposed on others.

So while doing something to spread out eyeballs among various search engines would make this argument moot because there is no longer a single entity you can pressure, I think it misses the heart of why people complain about bias. Despite a wide variety of media outlets, conservatives regularly complain about liberal bias in the media - there's just no single entity they can pressure.

Maybe that's for the best, but I think it's important to realise that this is not really a good faith argument.

Re: Trump Accuses Google of Burying Conservative News in Search Results

#83

Post by mullingitover »

So what.

Google should be able to blacklist every conservative (or liberal) site if they feel like it. They're a private business, and we have a Constitution that prohibits would-be tyrants from interfering with free speech. Trump should be run out of town on a rail for even hinting that he'd like to undermine freedom of speech.

Re: Trump Accuses Google of Burying Conservative News in Search Results

#84

Post by dagenix »

ramblerman wrote: post #69
dagenix wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you care to further explain your point and how that relates to the article at all? Bonus points if you can do it without saying something racist or already debunked.

I would wager it's not the default list resulting from their algorithms, and was in fact explicitly manipulated to present the list you see now. The original article claims something similar albeit on a different search result. the underlying idea is that google is not just using pagerank and algorithms to show us the current state of the internet. But rather is adding their own bias to push up / down certain results…

An idea for which absolutely no proof is offered. "Im seeing what I consider to be an insufficient number of white people" does not prove or provide evidence that the results were either hand curated or created with some sort of nefarious purpose.

Re: Trump Accuses Google of Burying Conservative News in Search Results

#85

Post by vanattab »

core-questions wrote: post #72
michaelmrose wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that a search engine has such a singular importance in deciding what the public sees. The very reason you would desire regulation is the very reason that you don't want the government regulating it. If google fails its userbase they can switch to a different search engine in 30 seconds by opening a new tab. How fast can you change governments?

> If google fails its userbase If their userbase can actually tell that they are _being_ failed. I don't know that this is deliberate and not just a result of SEO and ranking algorithms, but if what we see is being influenced, how would we know, and how would we generate enough energy to actually have a significant number of people digitally uproot themselves in order to force Google to respond somehow? > they can sw…

Yeah so switching browsers tabs takes 5-30 seconds and government takes 4-8 years and convincing approx 160 million people that this issue is the issue that matters more then the other issues they might consider when casting their vote. Pretty sure switching tabs is easier.

Re: Trump Accuses Google of Burying Conservative News in Search Results

#86

Post by danjoc »

mindcrime wrote: post #29
YinglingLight wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do not believe Silicon Valley has shown thoughtfulness and care for the republic in a way that I would trust them to enact this regulation.

I do not believe Silicon Valley has shown thoughtfulness and care for the republic in a way that I would trust them to enact this regulation. I trust Silicon Valley a hell of a lot more than I trust our government...

>I trust Silicon Valley a hell of a lot more than I trust our government...

The non-poaching agreements make me disagree with you.

Re: Trump Accuses Google of Burying Conservative News in Search Results

#87

Post by danjoc »

pacerwpg wrote: post #31
repolfx wrote: post #27

There's a dupe that got flagged here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17858874 Perhaps this story will also get flagged - it seems there's a lot of people who don't like discussion of political bias in Silicon Valley companies on HN. It's pretty easy to see why Trump thinks this. Just go to Google News and search Trump, then look at which news sources are selected. Or just look at this helpful pie chart: https:/…

CNBC, Politico and the Atlantic being flagged as liberal is evidence of the bias in the study.

According to The Atlantic, The Atlantic endorsed Clinton. Only the third candidate they've endorsed since 1860.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/11/the-cas...

Abraham Lincoln, Lyndon Johnson, Hillary Clinton.

Re: Trump Accuses Google of Burying Conservative News in Search Results

#88

Post by DuskStar »

closetohome wrote: post #59
brianbreslin wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this got me curious and i found this post about this: http://www.unz.com/isteve/great-moments-in-google-american-i...

You found an alt-right blog complaining about a glitch in an algorithm that accidentally promoted afraican americans? Shocking.

In all seriousness, are we not allowed to complain about glitches now, particularly if the glitch means 'increased diversity'?

Re: Trump Accuses Google of Burying Conservative News in Search Results

#89

Post by topmonk »

RealityVoid wrote: post #73
duprat wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 60% of republicans believe that the Earth and the human race were created ex nihilo recently. 20% of trump fans support SLAVERY. Not a Trump conservative by any means, but I'm gonna need a source for that one. Addendum: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/02/25/donald-tru...

http://time.com/4236640/donald-trump-racist-supporters/ I think this is what he meant. I also think you have to be blind to not understand that Trump is a racist. Also, the article you pulled has a lot of assumptions, such as that not being white means you can't be racist or the fact that you're liberal means you're against any use of torture. Overall, those kind of assumptions are the kind of binary classifications…

I'm not blind, last time I checked, and in my opinion, Trump isn't racist.

That whole theory seems to hang on Charlottesville and him saying there were good people on both sides. However, people forget the original purpose of the event was about the tearing down of Confederate statues. He was obviously referring to the people defending the statues and not white supremacists.

Re: Trump Accuses Google of Burying Conservative News in Search Results

#90

Post by dnadler »

michaelmrose wrote: post #81
core-questions wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If google fails its userbase If their userbase can actually tell that they are _being_ failed. I don't know that this is deliberate and not just a result of SEO and ranking algorithms, but if what we see is being influenced, how would we know, and how would we generate enough energy to actually have a significant number of people digitally uproot themselves in order to force Google to respond somehow? > they can sw…

> Happens every 4-8 years and takes a few months. Fairly well-oiled process, at this point. Last time I recall the candidate that would likely have done well for us was cheated in the primary and then the minority elected a criminal with dementia. Before that we had an authoritarian who at least seemed to want to help the country even at the expense of our rights for 8 years. Before that we had an incompetent drunk f…

>Hows that hope and change working for us lately?

Better than your hyperbolic rambling.

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