5 ms·

What happened in the US?

by brad0 8y ago

craftinator 8y ago
Yeah, I'm curious as well! US legislators are surely just as aweful, but I haven't read about anything exceptional this week.
Nasrudith 8y ago
The hearing where Steve King asked iPhone questions to Google and asked why Trump shows up under "idiot" so often in image searches. When it is entirely automated.
- shard972 8y ago
  Can we at least have a more intelligent conversation about how google designs its algorithms than "It's entirely automated". Everyone here knows that google didn't just plug a bunch of servers together and it just magically came up with a search engine. The idea that google has completely washed its hands of any untoward tweaking of search results to favour one party or another is just ignoring the reality of the claims being targeted at google. It didn't help either that when questioned about things like the plan to "improve hispanic voter outreach in key states" that google just pretends like it never happened.
  - hedora 8y ago
    Also, it is a poorly kept secret that google employs a small army of editors to curate the top search terms.
  - Nasrudith 8y ago
    I didn't think the issue worth discussing since it seemed to be a clear case of deliberate power inversion - politicians trying to put fear in the media instead of the other way around. It seemed to be clear cut messenger shooting because reality refused to honor their persecution complex. Really Google is pretty stereotypical corporate gutless about taking off auto-complete at anything remotely controversial even when it is an objective truth that say Santorum got his name associated with literal filth in response to comparing legalized gay relationships with beastiality. I saw little reason to bother with complexities when the accusations were so coarse and wrong. Also how is improving hispanic voter outreach remotely a matter of controversy? The US has universal voting rights. Their job is to connect people with information. Complaining about it strikes of the Dotcom Freudian slips of bribery in complaining about him making music videoes with rappers - that isn't remotely illegal and bringing it up says far more about the source than the subject. That is downright saintly compared to lobbying and media conglomerates giving blatant editorial pushes.
    - shard972 8y ago
      > Also how is improving hispanic voter outreach remotely a matter of controversy? Well hispanics mostly vote for democrats, so by increasing hispanic turnout you will get more democratic votes. If google cared about democracy, why not help everyone get out the vote? Why are they specifically hiring busses for hispanics in swing states unless they are trying to help the democrats? > The US has universal voting rights. Their job is to connect people with information. Yes, and im telling you they were not connecting all people, but focusing on connecting certain kinds of people to vote. > Complaining about it strikes of the Dotcom Freudian slips of bribery in complaining about him making music videoes with rappers Huh? > That is downright saintly compared to lobbying and media conglomerates giving blatant editorial pushes. So i don't get your arguemnt other than something about kim dotcom and rappers and because of that it's actually a good thing? How would you feel if facebook ran a campaign of "getting out the white vote" that paid millions of dollars in adds and hiring rentals and drivers to get out only white people to the polls? Or just replace white with democrat or republian. I don't see how anyone sees this as "saintly" rather than exactly what it is, a company in it's position of power trying to influence the results of an election. I have no idea how anyone but a radical capitalist sees that as a great service.
  - tootahe45 8y ago
    Exactly. If race baiters can manipulate white __ to show all black results, and a bunch of left-wing trolls can manipulate the word idiot to show Trump, what's preventing real manipulation of results for more targeted searches during elections? it wouldn't be as easy to spot as the aforementioned things. I wasn't quite buying the whole search manipulation/conservative censorship thing until I watched the leaked meeting after Trump's election (which was basically a call to political action by Google's leadership), i quickly reconsidered.
    - Nasrudith 8y ago
      The thing is it really manipulation if people actually all refer to Mitch McConnell as a turtle mockingly? SEO is a known "game" and arms race. Correctness in a factual accuracy sense vs what people say are two very different search spaces and only the later is generically possible without knowing everything upfront.
- gnode 8y ago
  The correct answer would be: The system we built learnt that association from the public discourse, and we neglected / decided not to remove said association. The reality is that while most of Google's search system is autonomous, a lot of work goes into making adjustments to avoid a negative perception of Google. Removing politically incorrect phrases from autocomplete is an obvious example.

What happened in the US?

by brad0 8y ago

What happened in the US?

Yeah, I'm curious as well! US legislators are surely just as aweful, but I haven't read about anything exceptional this week.

Nasrudith 8y ago

The hearing where Steve King asked iPhone questions to Google and asked why Trump shows up under "idiot" so often in image searches. When it is entirely automated.

shard972 8y ago
Can we at least have a more intelligent conversation about how google designs its algorithms than "It's entirely automated". Everyone here knows that google didn't just plug a bunch of servers together and it just magically came up with a search engine. The idea that google has completely washed its hands of any untoward tweaking of search results to favour one party or another is just ignoring the reality of the claims being targeted at google. It didn't help either that when questioned about things like the plan to "improve hispanic voter outreach in key states" that google just pretends like it never happened.
- hedora 8y ago
  Also, it is a poorly kept secret that google employs a small army of editors to curate the top search terms.
- Nasrudith 8y ago
  I didn't think the issue worth discussing since it seemed to be a clear case of deliberate power inversion - politicians trying to put fear in the media instead of the other way around. It seemed to be clear cut messenger shooting because reality refused to honor their persecution complex. Really Google is pretty stereotypical corporate gutless about taking off auto-complete at anything remotely controversial even when it is an objective truth that say Santorum got his name associated with literal filth in response to comparing legalized gay relationships with beastiality. I saw little reason to bother with complexities when the accusations were so coarse and wrong. Also how is improving hispanic voter outreach remotely a matter of controversy? The US has universal voting rights. Their job is to connect people with information. Complaining about it strikes of the Dotcom Freudian slips of bribery in complaining about him making music videoes with rappers - that isn't remotely illegal and bringing it up says far more about the source than the subject. That is downright saintly compared to lobbying and media conglomerates giving blatant editorial pushes.
  - shard972 8y ago
    > Also how is improving hispanic voter outreach remotely a matter of controversy? Well hispanics mostly vote for democrats, so by increasing hispanic turnout you will get more democratic votes. If google cared about democracy, why not help everyone get out the vote? Why are they specifically hiring busses for hispanics in swing states unless they are trying to help the democrats? > The US has universal voting rights. Their job is to connect people with information. Yes, and im telling you they were not connecting all people, but focusing on connecting certain kinds of people to vote. > Complaining about it strikes of the Dotcom Freudian slips of bribery in complaining about him making music videoes with rappers Huh? > That is downright saintly compared to lobbying and media conglomerates giving blatant editorial pushes. So i don't get your arguemnt other than something about kim dotcom and rappers and because of that it's actually a good thing? How would you feel if facebook ran a campaign of "getting out the white vote" that paid millions of dollars in adds and hiring rentals and drivers to get out only white people to the polls? Or just replace white with democrat or republian. I don't see how anyone sees this as "saintly" rather than exactly what it is, a company in it's position of power trying to influence the results of an election. I have no idea how anyone but a radical capitalist sees that as a great service.
- tootahe45 8y ago
  Exactly. If race baiters can manipulate white __ to show all black results, and a bunch of left-wing trolls can manipulate the word idiot to show Trump, what's preventing real manipulation of results for more targeted searches during elections? it wouldn't be as easy to spot as the aforementioned things. I wasn't quite buying the whole search manipulation/conservative censorship thing until I watched the leaked meeting after Trump's election (which was basically a call to political action by Google's leadership), i quickly reconsidered.
  - Nasrudith 8y ago
    The thing is it really manipulation if people actually all refer to Mitch McConnell as a turtle mockingly? SEO is a known "game" and arms race. Correctness in a factual accuracy sense vs what people say are two very different search spaces and only the later is generically possible without knowing everything upfront.
gnode 8y ago
The correct answer would be: The system we built learnt that association from the public discourse, and we neglected / decided not to remove said association. The reality is that while most of Google's search system is autonomous, a lot of work goes into making adjustments to avoid a negative perception of Google. Removing politically incorrect phrases from autocomplete is an obvious example.