
Google: 'We never rank search results to manipulate political sentiment' - smaili
https://www.businessinsider.com/google-responds-to-trump-claim-suppressing-conservative-voices-2018-8
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paulddraper
I'm not sure about the actual search results, but Google certainly has a bias
(like most organizations, to be fair).

Example: Last week, the Google doodle celebrated the 107th birthday of Ismat
Chughtai, a deceased liberal Muslim Indian female author born in 1911 who
wrote about gender equality and class conflict from a Marxist perspective. Her
novels and short stories gained niche popularity in world of Urdu literature
and in 1976 she won the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award.

The Google doodle for the little known event called "Easter"? Nothing for the
last 18 years. [1] [2]

[1]
[https://www.google.com/doodles?q=easter](https://www.google.com/doodles?q=easter)

[2]
[https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/websearch/RES...](https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/websearch/RESLjNOwplY)

\---

I'd like to think that their perspective doesn't affect the actual search
results though.

~~~
lovehashbrowns
What is the Ismat feature a bias of?

How is Google biased for not wanting to display an Easter doodle? Do they have
doodles for other religious holidays?

~~~
paulddraper
> Do they have doodles for other religious holidays?

They do.

(1) Chinese New Year (Buddhist/Taoist) 2016-02-18, 2014-01-31, 2013-02-10

(2) Qixi (Chinese mythology) 2018-08-17, 2017-08-28, 2016-08-09, ...

(3) Tu B'Av (Jewish) 2016-08-19, 2015-07-31, 2014-08-11, 2012-08-03

(4) Holi (Hindi) 2018-03-02, 2017-03-13, 2017-03-12, 2016-03-24, ...

But even if they didn't, it would still be a historical/cultural bias to
exclude all events with religious origins. In that case, a secular bias.

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detaro
related:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17859353](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17859353)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17858906](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17858906)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17858874](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17858874)

~~~
paulddraper
FYI, the first link (NY Times) went from #23 to #82 in 20 minutes.

The second link (Washington Post) made it to #8 before being pushed off the
front page 20 minutes later.

The third and original link (BBC) was on the front page for almost 20 minutes
until it was flagged and removed from results altogether.

EDIT: Also
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17862275](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17862275)
(Washington Examiner) was flagged/removed.

