4 ms·

He better have the chuptzpah to come out of the meeting telling the truth that Google results do not have an ideological bias and consider his civic duty comple

by spbaar 8y ago

He better have the chuptzpah to come out of the meeting telling the truth that Google results do not have an ideological bias and consider his civic duty complete after showing lawmakers evidence of such. We've seen what happens at Facebook when they try to make sure the range of opinions published is "neutral". I've seen people complain that the little 'i' symbol next to news stories on Facebook that details the viewpoint and credibility of the linked site is discriminatory. There will always be a constituency for people who love to play victims to social media companies. That should not affect their decisions.

colordrops 8y ago
Google search results and news absolutely have a bias. These services aren't made in a vacuum. They are made and tuned by people with biases. Technology doesn't have some special ability to sort out ground truth from human bias. It just reflects our biases. As mentioned elsewhere in the comments, the question shouldn't be whether google is biased or not, but whether the government should be getting involved at all.
- s73v3r_ 8y ago
  You'd be extremely hard pressed to prove that it's an anti-right wing bias, though.
  - jerf 8y ago
    It's pretty easy. Hacker News seems to think Google seems pretty fair, since we're all "everything is biased and the filter bubble is inescapable, oh, wait, are we talking about Google? Things are great and the government is persecuting them." Hacker News is on the left side of the US as a whole and extremely hostile to Republicans in general and Trump specifically. If HN thinks Google is fair, that's nearly ipso facto proof it's quite substantially biased. Silicon Valley's lack of ideological diversity is a big problem for them. I don't mean from the point of view of being right or wrong in that ideology, I mean from the point of view of looking out at the rest of the world and modeling their reactions and what they're going to do. Even if the ideology embodied by Silicon Valley is the universe's sole, shining example of true truth and nothing else is even close, they're still going to find themselves having an increasingly difficult time navigating or even understanding the rest of the world, if they can't tolerate any other ideologies within themselves to give them those other perspectives on the world. Diversity really is important.
    - nova22033 8y ago
      > Hacker News seems to think Solid data driven analysis is what I'm here for...
    - komali2 8y ago
      I appreciate your reply. Do you have evidence that Google search results are anti republican biased?
      - firemancoder 8y ago
        I can tell someone's political leanings just by whether or not they think Google is biased. A lot of people are ok with the way things are. Will they be ok when they have an opinion that's not whitelisted by tech?
        komali2 8y ago
        >I can tell someone's political leanings just by whether or not they think Google is biased. If someone described my political leanings they would certainly use the words "liberal," as well as "socialist," "communist," and maybe even sometimes "anarchist." Just to save you from having to engage in Strawman or false assumptions. I'm curious what my political leanings have to do with your claim. Do you have evidence that Google search/news/other products are "biased?" I have never seen evidence of actual evidence by the company itself demonstrating bias against conservative ideologies. I have seen plenty of evidence that for example the internet as a whole is biased against conservatives, or even really reality, but never google. I would definitely agree that the majority of employees can be described as liberal, but then again, Google's headquarters are in the Bay Area, so that's hardly Google's fault. Here's a writeup, I am genuinely trying to find evidence of this, because nobody that believes google is censoring conservatives has been able to get it for me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_by_Google https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_by_Google . Check discussion and sources for lots more info.
        firemancoder 8y ago
- komali2 8y ago
  Do you have evidence for this claim (that Google search results are biased)? I'd love to read more.
  - colordrops 8y ago
    You are misreading my comment. I am not stating that Google has a particular bias, but that technology is inherently biased.
    - komali2 8y ago
      I apologise for misreading your comment. I read it as speaking about Google in particular because of the first line: >Google search results and news absolutely have a bias. That, and the context of this post, "Google CEO... To meet with top GOP lawmakers..." made me believe we were talking about Google. I think "technology is biased" is an interesting discussion, depending on definitions of technology, but given the context I'd prefer to focus on Google: do you believe Google search results and news are biased, and if so, is this a belief you support with evidence that I could also learn about, or is it more due to your general "technology is biased" philosophy?

by spbaar 8y ago

colordrops 8y ago

Google search results and news absolutely have a bias. These services aren't made in a vacuum. They are made and tuned by people with biases. Technology doesn't have some special ability to sort out ground truth from human bias. It just reflects our biases. As mentioned elsewhere in the comments, the question shouldn't be whether google is biased or not, but whether the government should be getting involved at all.

s73v3r_ 8y ago
You'd be extremely hard pressed to prove that it's an anti-right wing bias, though.
- jerf 8y ago
  It's pretty easy. Hacker News seems to think Google seems pretty fair, since we're all "everything is biased and the filter bubble is inescapable, oh, wait, are we talking about Google? Things are great and the government is persecuting them." Hacker News is on the left side of the US as a whole and extremely hostile to Republicans in general and Trump specifically. If HN thinks Google is fair, that's nearly ipso facto proof it's quite substantially biased. Silicon Valley's lack of ideological diversity is a big problem for them. I don't mean from the point of view of being right or wrong in that ideology, I mean from the point of view of looking out at the rest of the world and modeling their reactions and what they're going to do. Even if the ideology embodied by Silicon Valley is the universe's sole, shining example of true truth and nothing else is even close, they're still going to find themselves having an increasingly difficult time navigating or even understanding the rest of the world, if they can't tolerate any other ideologies within themselves to give them those other perspectives on the world. Diversity really is important.
  - nova22033 8y ago
    > Hacker News seems to think Solid data driven analysis is what I'm here for...
  - komali2 8y ago
    I appreciate your reply. Do you have evidence that Google search results are anti republican biased?
    - firemancoder 8y ago
      I can tell someone's political leanings just by whether or not they think Google is biased. A lot of people are ok with the way things are. Will they be ok when they have an opinion that's not whitelisted by tech?
      - komali2 8y ago
        >I can tell someone's political leanings just by whether or not they think Google is biased. If someone described my political leanings they would certainly use the words "liberal," as well as "socialist," "communist," and maybe even sometimes "anarchist." Just to save you from having to engage in Strawman or false assumptions. I'm curious what my political leanings have to do with your claim. Do you have evidence that Google search/news/other products are "biased?" I have never seen evidence of actual evidence by the company itself demonstrating bias against conservative ideologies. I have seen plenty of evidence that for example the internet as a whole is biased against conservatives, or even really reality, but never google. I would definitely agree that the majority of employees can be described as liberal, but then again, Google's headquarters are in the Bay Area, so that's hardly Google's fault. Here's a writeup, I am genuinely trying to find evidence of this, because nobody that believes google is censoring conservatives has been able to get it for me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_by_Google https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_by_Google . Check discussion and sources for lots more info.
        firemancoder 8y ago
komali2 8y ago
Do you have evidence for this claim (that Google search results are biased)? I'd love to read more.
- colordrops 8y ago
  You are misreading my comment. I am not stating that Google has a particular bias, but that technology is inherently biased.
  - komali2 8y ago
    I apologise for misreading your comment. I read it as speaking about Google in particular because of the first line: >Google search results and news absolutely have a bias. That, and the context of this post, "Google CEO... To meet with top GOP lawmakers..." made me believe we were talking about Google. I think "technology is biased" is an interesting discussion, depending on definitions of technology, but given the context I'd prefer to focus on Google: do you believe Google search results and news are biased, and if so, is this a belief you support with evidence that I could also learn about, or is it more due to your general "technology is biased" philosophy?