
Google requires money to remove Holocaust deniers from top of search results - knz42
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/17/holocaust-deniers-google-search-top-spot
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dqv
What a ridiculous, reactionary article.

"did the holocaust happen" connotes that the Holocaust didn't happen and
therefore results relevant to that appear in the search. Further, most people
who believe it did happen and want more information will just search
"holocaust".

You can't change human nature (at least you can't do so with search results
alone). You don't stop abhorrent ideas by trying to censor them (it only
emboldens these people and their response to the censorship is that _they must
be right_ because then no one would try to hide "the truth" from them)

>If Stormfront is back at number one when you read this, it’s because I’ve run
out of funds. Each click through costs £1.12 and I have a £200 per day limit.
@carolecadwalla on Twitter for more information.

Asking for money...

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LordWinstanley
>>"did the holocaust happen" connotes that the Holocaust didn't happen and
therefore results relevant to that appear in the search. Further, most people
who believe it did happen and want more information will just search
"holocaust".

Exactly! I was just about to post something similar myself.

That the holocaust did happen is accepted as fact by the vast majority. So, by
definition, the only people writing who are going to be even considering the
question will be people claiming that it didn't. Likewise, anyone using the
search term _" did the holocaust happen"_ is [for whatever reason] seeking out
an alternate view.

It's like someone searching for _" Is the Earth flat"_. As most sane people
already know the Earth is not, it's a non-issue. The only people taking to the
internet to debate the shape of the Earth, therefore, are highly likely to be
Flat-Earther lunatics and hence those results are likely to come top of the
Google rankings. It doesn't mean there's suddenly a huge wave of people
worried about taking a boat journey over the horizon.

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LordWinstanley
This is a slippery slope which, as ever, is wrapped up in "Won't somebody
think of the children?!" type outrage.

Isn't the whole point of an allegedly free society that we're supposed to be
able to hold opposing and unorthodox opinions?

Stormfront, with its repellent views and its discussion forum with the
collected IQ of a cashew nut is just an obvious 'low hanging fruit' target.
But what's really being asked for here? Of late, seemingly intelligent people
are increasingly demanding that Google and Facebook [and others] start
censoring 'fake' news and 'fake' search results.

So we want to swap a world where we occasionally see controversial or
unorthodox views for one where anything that might offend someone is filtered
out and entire future generations grow up with a collective _weltanschauung_
decided upon by two or three huge capitalist American corporations –and no
opposing views are tolerated?

That sounds a bit like something else to me... but, having got this far, I'm
not going to invoke Godwin's Law at the last minute!

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tdkl
> So we want to swap a world were we occasionally see controversial or
> unorthodox views for one were anything that might offend someone is filtered
> out

That's what the sheltered "safespace" generation is being taught.

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webmaven
Misleading headline (so what else is new?). OP describes buying an Adsense ad
that appears above the (unchanged) search results.

That said, I think Google should make the ads a bit more visually distinct
from the results to make it even _less_ likely that unsophisticated users can
be confused (whether accidentally or willfully).

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johnnyfaehell
That's not true. The top result is not an ad, since it would have ad next to
it.

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LordWinstanley
Yes it is [or was] an ad. Take a look at the pic in the article.

~~~
johnnyfaehell
Ah when I did the search I never got that ad. But the top link that isn't an
ad is also holocaust denying.

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cm2187
I don't think it should be up to google to decide of what is History and what
is not.

France (and probably other countries) did something similar, where the
parliament made it a criminal offense to deny the existence of the holocaust.
As a libertarian, I don't think either judges, politicians or google have any
legitimacy to dictate History. Free speech means letting people express their
idea, primarily ideas that you think are wrong, stupid or distasteful (letting
only people you agree with express their ideas is the very definition of
intolerance). I don't think censoring on google is the solution.

Spielberg's project of recording testimonies from hundreds of holocaust
survivors is a much better way to oppose holocaust deniers.

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eddd
_Re: Top 10 reasons why the holocaust didn 't happen._

 _The most compelling evidence for the holocaust being a lie is the fact there
were survivors, period._

[https://www.stormfront.org/forum/t553062/?postcount=6#post62...](https://www.stormfront.org/forum/t553062/?postcount=6#post6261423)

No words can express the look of my face while reading this.

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johnnyfaehell
Fun fact, if you use google.de you won't see the holocaust deniers result. So
I assume google knows it's holocaust denying and that in Germany it's illegal.

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docdeek
I don’t think that there is any doubt that Google knows the results deny the
Holocaust.

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tdkl
Since when can random bloggers write their thoughts for prominent newspapers
and call it articles ?

