
Is Google blocking the discovery of information due to political correctness? - mindfulhack
https://imgur.com/a/aI2xQ6G
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ipiz0618
Was pretty skeptical until today they censored pro democracy related searches
in Hong Kong [0].

First screenshot shows simply "yellow" \- a synonym for pro-democracy stance,
nothing is suggested.

Second shows "blue" \- a synonym for pro-China stance, first suggestion is
"blue economic circle", meaning a pro-China economy.

I'm in Hong Kong so I'm not sure if it's a region specific thing, but it's
real at least right before I post this.

[0] - [https://imgur.com/a/Zf4piAb](https://imgur.com/a/Zf4piAb)

~~~
bigphishy
Wow, google has jumped the f __*ing shark on that. Another reason to use
www.startpage.com and duck.com I suppose

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mindfulhack
This is a very simple HN share. This title isn't for an insightful blog post
like you normally might see. it's just an image screenshot comparison of five
search engines for a given query, whose search results say it all.

I really hope this doesn't blow up in my face. Here we go.

I'm an LGBTQ man, and politically on the left. I suddenly wanted to know
whether the not often used word 'lesbianism', in trying to find a noun to
grammatically express the sexuality of lesbians, is considered offensive or
not. It was a harmless enquiry, just trying to work it out.

To my shock, in response to this query, Google acted like the word didn't
exist. It even suggested "lesbian" like I shouldn't have typed the word in
that sentence. It absolutely is a word:
[https://i.imgur.com/scdLe3W.png](https://i.imgur.com/scdLe3W.png)

The winner in this case? Yandex. They seem to never be afraid to show me what
I'm actually looking for, if it is on the Internet.

We need to know about words, and to see them with our own eyes. We need them
to be discussed, to even discover and be educated about how other people feel
about them in our society. By hiding words, concepts, and information in this
censorship-level way, Google only lets ignorance increase in the world.

Is this a case of politically correct censorship gone too far, or just a
random blip in Google's vast algorithm and an unfortunate false positive? This
is not the only example that I have increasingly experienced recently, which
is why I'm sharing this particular one.

I fear it is just one in a string of upcoming experiences where Google will no
longer show me real information which, from non-Google sources, I know: 1.
exists, 2. is most relevant to the query, and 3. Google used to show me.

The other search engines prove it to be true. The fact that I have to even go
to other search engines to confirm it is worrying.

Am I being paranoid? Is it just me? Has anyone else noticed the quality of
Google results becoming increasingly worse, and even trending towards
'political' censorship?

This one might be a random mistake or seen as a weak example, but I can give
other live examples.

Certain words, concepts, and information exist in the world, and Google is
starting to have a say of what people can find, _even if they 're searching
for it_. People want to learn more about certain things, but Google is no
longer showing it to them.

This is chilling. This is a horrifying abuse of power. I don't care that it's
capitalism, because the issue is larger than that. The problem and the effect
is societal.

Facebook is equally guilty in their own domain of influence - in shaping and
censoring culture on a global scale that is unprecedented in human history.

Google's main abuse: knowledge.

Facebook's main abuse: culture. (and also knowledge.)

To me, very concerning.

~~~
cameronh90
To me, Google's result seems to more precisely answer the question you've
asked, as I understand it.

The others mostly give a definition of lesbianism which is fine but may or may
not tell you whether it's offensive in context. Whereas the Google top result
is to a page about specifically avoiding offensive bias, and and the second is
generally about homosexual terminology.

If you wanted the definition of lesbianism, why not search definition of
lesbianism?

Also there's nothing offensive about lesbianism so why would you think Google
is censoring it? It just means "being a lesbian".

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gowld
This submission is a screenshot with unsubstantiated flamebait as title.

