Carole Cadwalladr, a journalist for the Guardian and the Observer has a special interest in the colonisation of parts of the internet by the far-right. In December, she discovered that using Google to search for “Did the Holocaust happen?” returned search results from neo-Nazi Holocaust denial websites claiming that the Holocaust was a hoax perpetrated by Jews in order to enrich themselves and subjugate non-Jews. Cadwalladr was so horrified that she wrote about it, and paid more than £500 from her own pocket for advertisements above the search results confirming that the Holocaust did happen, with links to websites describing the disgusting phenomenon of Holocaust denial.
Cadwaladr’s outrage was directed not only at those who published the Holocaust denial websites, but at Google for pretending that it has no control over search results whilst profiting from them. Google said that it does “not remove content from search results, except in very limited cases such as illegal content, malware and violations of our webmaster guidelines.” She wrote: “[Google is] profiting from Holocaust denial. Its algorithm is helping Stormfront reach new recruits – the next generation of Thomas Mairs and [Anders] Breiviks – all the while adding to its bottom line, its quarterly profits.”
Initially, Google refused to do anything about this noting that their algorithms were automated and might return offensive results sometimes. But Cadwalladr’s story was picked up by other media outlets, and soon Google’s highly-irresponsible attitude was under scrutiny.
Now Google has said that it is changing its algorithm. Confirming the change, a spokesman said: “This is a really challenging problem, and something we’re thinking deeply about in terms of how we can do a better job.”
Cadwalladr’s achievement is impressive. In 2004, Google came under scrutiny because searching for “Jew” returned a website dedicated to promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories. Google refused to change its algorithm that time, instead bizarrely opting to display a message above the search results encouraging users not to trust the “offensive search results”.