Did you ever notice the abundance of excuses made after the guilty party is caught? We have all. From politicians to the media, to common criminals to public schools systems to cheating partners to Google search engines named Google. This one is a big deal, Google.
According to the Washington Examiner’s report, Google’s latest reason for pretending to be sorry came from a search result that was generated by a query for “Jew.” What was the offensive result?
Verb: To bargain with someone in a petty or miserly way.
“In reference to old stereotypes associating Jewish persons with trading and money lending,” was the origin of the word, according to the Google search result. It was still available on Google Tuesday afternoon.
Google has of course “apologised” for the “mistake” — kind of. “Our apologies,” Google Search Liaison Danny Sullivan tweeted.
Our apologies. Google licenses third-party dictionary specialists’ definitions. If they are the primary meaning of a term, we will not display them by default. We have blocked the request and passed feedback to our partner.
Uh-huh, nonsense.
Let’s say we search for the N-word. Is there anyone who doesn’t believe that an offensive definition would have been displayed, “mistakenly” of course — and then taken down only after Google received complaints. This is a rhetorical question — no, it’s not.
Let’s pretend that Google was not aware of the situation, and then pretend it was. It was actually sincerely sorry. The search engine giant should expect to do a better job of vetting “third party dictionary experts” before allowing their answers to be displayed.
Let’s end with this question
Is it unreasonable to be skeptical about the “apology” of Google and Facebook in the countless cases of them suppressing or banning conservative content?
It’s not unreasonable.
