4 ms·

What does being "woke" or "based" mean when it comes to concrete issues you have using their products?

veave 3y ago
In this context... well, bing hiding the tiananmen square protests (mentioned in the article) or google returning a list of exclusively black people when you searched for "american inventors" are two incidents that come to mind.
- creata 3y ago
  > google returning a list of exclusively black people when you searched for "american inventors" There's no way that's intentional. For starters, DuckDuckGo, Google and Brave image search all do the same thing here. Maybe it's some weirdness involving "american inventors" appearing in the phrase "african american inventors" or something.
  - pixxel 3y ago
    Couple of google tests: “Black man” “Black family” Results as expected. “White man” “White family” A mixture of black and white. “happy black woman” Results as expected. “happy white woman” Lots of white women with black men. Edit: DDG’s results seems to fair better.
    - spookie 3y ago
      Can't reproduce these results.
      - veave 3y ago
        You don't see this? https://i.imgur.com/e5GaIgn.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/e5GaIgn.jpeg
        spookie 3y ago
        No, I don't know what to say. I don't use Google tbh, but as someone else commented on here, that's not a viable reason either. I really don't know.
      - pixxel 3y ago
        I don’t use google and actively block on my home network. I’ve just tested with a clean VM using VPN in Sweden, Uk and USA. All results are reproducible for me and are not tainted with my browsing history.
    - developer93 3y ago
      The last one might be because white woman might not be usually specified if she's not contrasted in some way to other races, since white is default in the anglosphere. So in those cases she's more likely just to be called "woman". It's "not ideal" but there you are.
  - spookie 3y ago
    Agreed, I do believe it's an artifact of a anglophone dominated web (if you're talking about someone from your country with your native language, you're less likely to specify their nationality). I didn't mean to be toxic with the dominated part or anything, I just think it summarises the phenomena pretty well.
- smallerfish 3y ago
  Bing hiding "tank man" is not "woke" by any common definition of the term. Got a reference on the Google incident? Sounds like misinformation.
  - veave 3y ago
    There are a few references online if you search for '"american inventors" "google"' or something. For obvious reasons it was never covered in any tech blog. https://twitter.com/Micki_Harbour/status/894871335104630784 https://twitter.com/Micki_Harbour/status/894871335104630784 https://old.reddit.com/r/degoogle/comments/88a5hv/is_something_wrong_here/ https://old.reddit.com/r/degoogle/comments/88a5hv/is_somethi...
    - manuelabeledo 3y ago
      This is irrelevant. How many references to e.g. Edison will you find online, remarking that he was "white"? In a context of ethnic debate in the US, mentioning "white" anything, will most likely revolve around "black" anything.
soundnote 3y ago
Mozilla the organization has done stuff like boot people for politics, published an essay that says "we need more than deplatforming" using as one of their examples organizations deciding what I should see on the Internet - preferring outlets that Mozilla themselves like, naturally. They publish stuff with the gist of "did you encounter other politics on YouTube, how scary". This one's more just a lack of product focus + pursuit of coolness, but the organization spends money on getting a sneaker designer to make time-limited color themes for their browser and writes a pile of copy about how cool it is that a sneaker designer painted the browser blue - sorry, I can paint the browser blue to show that I'm an activist. https://imgur.com/a/ZmUzr0q https://imgur.com/a/ZmUzr0q > What does being "woke" or "based" mean when it comes to concrete issues you have using their products? It doesn't necessarily have to reflect deeply on the product, just that the org itself feels the need to make its politics clear. Sometimes, it does show, like Mozilla being pro others shaping what I see in ways agreeable to them, which was the straw that broke the camel's back for me dropping them.

In this context... well, bing hiding the tiananmen square protests (mentioned in the article) or google returning a list of exclusively black people when you searched for "american inventors" are two incidents that come to mind.

creata 3y ago
> google returning a list of exclusively black people when you searched for "american inventors" There's no way that's intentional. For starters, DuckDuckGo, Google and Brave image search all do the same thing here. Maybe it's some weirdness involving "american inventors" appearing in the phrase "african american inventors" or something.
- pixxel 3y ago
  Couple of google tests: “Black man” “Black family” Results as expected. “White man” “White family” A mixture of black and white. “happy black woman” Results as expected. “happy white woman” Lots of white women with black men. Edit: DDG’s results seems to fair better.
  - spookie 3y ago
    Can't reproduce these results.
    - veave 3y ago
      You don't see this? https://i.imgur.com/e5GaIgn.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/e5GaIgn.jpeg
      - spookie 3y ago
        No, I don't know what to say. I don't use Google tbh, but as someone else commented on here, that's not a viable reason either. I really don't know.
    - pixxel 3y ago
      I don’t use google and actively block on my home network. I’ve just tested with a clean VM using VPN in Sweden, Uk and USA. All results are reproducible for me and are not tainted with my browsing history.
  - developer93 3y ago
    The last one might be because white woman might not be usually specified if she's not contrasted in some way to other races, since white is default in the anglosphere. So in those cases she's more likely just to be called "woman". It's "not ideal" but there you are.
- spookie 3y ago
  Agreed, I do believe it's an artifact of a anglophone dominated web (if you're talking about someone from your country with your native language, you're less likely to specify their nationality). I didn't mean to be toxic with the dominated part or anything, I just think it summarises the phenomena pretty well.
smallerfish 3y ago
Bing hiding "tank man" is not "woke" by any common definition of the term. Got a reference on the Google incident? Sounds like misinformation.
- veave 3y ago
  There are a few references online if you search for '"american inventors" "google"' or something. For obvious reasons it was never covered in any tech blog. https://twitter.com/Micki_Harbour/status/894871335104630784 https://twitter.com/Micki_Harbour/status/894871335104630784 https://old.reddit.com/r/degoogle/comments/88a5hv/is_something_wrong_here/ https://old.reddit.com/r/degoogle/comments/88a5hv/is_somethi...
  - manuelabeledo 3y ago
    This is irrelevant. How many references to e.g. Edison will you find online, remarking that he was "white"? In a context of ethnic debate in the US, mentioning "white" anything, will most likely revolve around "black" anything.

soundnote 3y ago

Mozilla the organization has done stuff like boot people for politics, published an essay that says "we need more than deplatforming" using as one of their examples organizations deciding what I should see on the Internet - preferring outlets that Mozilla themselves like, naturally. They publish stuff with the gist of "did you encounter other politics on YouTube, how scary". This one's more just a lack of product focus + pursuit of coolness, but the organization spends money on getting a sneaker designer to make time-limited color themes for their browser and writes a pile of copy about how cool it is that a sneaker designer painted the browser blue - sorry, I can paint the browser blue to show that I'm an activist. https://imgur.com/a/ZmUzr0q https://imgur.com/a/ZmUzr0q > What does being "woke" or "based" mean when it comes to concrete issues you have using their products? It doesn't necessarily have to reflect deeply on the product, just that the org itself feels the need to make its politics clear. Sometimes, it does show, like Mozilla being pro others shaping what I see in ways agreeable to them, which was the straw that broke the camel's back for me dropping them.