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The Digital Ministry of Truth, the Election, and Trusting Too Much
Why should we trust these corporations to shepherd our information?
Google has announced that it will be modifying their autocomplete feature to “keep the search bar from pointing users in a direction that could be perceived as for or against a particular candidate or political affiliation.” They did also say that “even if a search phrase isn’t suggested by Google’s autocomplete feature, users can still search those terms,” but should we believe them? After all, they have been caught misleading us about this subject in the past. Either way, this manipulation of internet searches seems problematic. There have been issues in the past with Google’s tweaks to their autocomplete feature, and although this new change may not have any direct effect on searches that are typed in by users, all of this leads one to think more deeply about Google’s control of information, and the attitudes of those behind the scenes. Algorithms are not neutral, and Google’s search is no exception.
Of course, when it comes to control of information, nobody beats Mark Zuckerberg, as the man behind the curtain of Facebook, Instagram, and What’sApp. NYT columnist Charlie Warzel called Zuckerberg “the most powerful unelected man in America,” and this is a problem for a number of reasons…
