Okay, I'm ready to post this story now. I apologise for the mystery, but on closer inspection the source of this story looked like it could have been BNP-related and I would not wish to appear to support the BNP because I don't. I'm now reasonably satisfied that it isn't. This story is about Google, and nothing else. It involves the thorny subject of religion, and in particular Islam. But although it involves Islam, it isn't about Islam - it is about Google. Bloody hell, you have to be so careful these days, it's insane! What the hell, I'm just gonna get on with it.
One of the most magnificent things about Google has always been its empowering abilities, and its hardline defense of free speech and free access to information. Over the years, Google has built its reputation, its success, and its ethics on these principles. What's more, Google developed "Google Suggest" which made searching even more useful. As you type in a word or phrase, Google starts compiling a list based on popular searches to assist you. Sometimes the Google Suggest lists are useful, sometimes they're funny, sometimes, they're irrelevant. But in almost all cases, they are worthwhile to some degree. I don't know about you but I've actually found Google Suggest useful as it inspired searches that I may not otherwise have made. For example, I was once looking for birthday gift ideas and when you type "birthday" into Google, the Suggest tool comes up with birthday cards, messages, poems, cakes, etc. You get the idea. Feel free to give it a try.
Here's a screen shot of Google Suggest just so you know what I'm talking about.
Anyway, here's the thing. When you try looking for other people's OPINIONS, you may typically search for an opinion that matches your own. According to several studies, this is fairly common practice. So for example, if you are looking to find opinions based on the idea that "religion is fake" then it isn't unreasonable to search using those very words. Similarly you may search for "jesus is the light of the world" in an equally biased way to view results that match your expectations. This is very common and Google Suggest is designed to cope with it. It's one of the ways people find like-minded users on forums etc that hold similar views.
"Opinions" are not "information". Opinions are biased towards a particular way of thinking and serve a particular set of ideals or intellectual goals. This is why they're "opinions". What's more, Google Suggest compiles its lists from popular searches. So once again, we the users are shaping these wonderful online tools freely based on how we use them. As such, if something unsavoury appears at the top of a list in Google Suggest, it isn't strictly Google's fault, it is instead the result of the millions of users who made those items popular. User's opinions shape Google's Suggest results.
Still with me? Good.Now we're getting to the crunch moment. You can try this yourself, don't simply take my word for it. Type into Google any of the following...
religion is
christianity is
buddhism is
scientology is
politics is
art is
[anything you like] is
By ending the search phrase with "... is" you are inviting a truly open and objective set of results as you are not influencing the opinion one way or the other (for example compared against typing "religion is fake" which swings the opinions in a certain way). The results you get in Google Suggest are interesting. Some are downright rude, some are very amusing, some are extremely serious but ALL of them are based on freely expressed opinions by users and as such ALL of them are VALID. Whether you love the results or hate them, they are valid. Whether they help you or merely p*** you off, they remain valid.
Now try typing into Google "Islam is" and watch what happens. Notice anything? Yep, Google Suggest gets instantly disabled. Like it doesn't even exist at all. It seems that Google, which is normally so willing to share the views and thoughts of others at every turn, is censoring those thoughts when it comes to the topic of Islam. Let's not pretend to be naive here, many non-Muslims have strong views on Islam and many Muslims have strong views on Infidels, and it can potentially be a rough road between the two. But is it right for Google to censor this result? What does it say about Google, about us, about Islam?
You could be forgiven for accusing Google of having "the fear" of Islam which is why it chooses to deliberately suppress any potentially negative views on the religion. Or you could be equally forgiven for suspecting Google of some sort of back door support of Islam that us Westerners would find challenging to say the least. Given that Google refused to remove many extremist Jihadist videos from YouTube (after all, the Jihadists have the right to express their views too) it does at least have the appearance that Jihadists don't get their ideas censored on Google but those who would challenge the Jihadists do get censored. I'm sure the reasoning is a lot more complex than this and I don't wish this to start sounding like a simplistic BNP article but hey, you could be forgiven for thinking those things, right?
So why does this matter so much? It matters more than many will ever realise because Google is a global product that we are all fairly addicted to these days and it features in many of our lives on a daily basis. It matters because Google is American, born from the heartland of a deeply capitalist country that worships its freedoms and mobility. It matters because Google's "promise" has always been the free, democratic, empowering access to information, opinions, and content of all types. So this little feature of Google Suggest has far reaching implications about the nature of censorship; the quiet, back-hand way it has been imposed is likely to be the thin end of a very big and dangerous wedge.
Google Suggest seems to disable a few swear words, which you can sort of understand. This doesn't necessarily censor opinions, it simply keeps the page looking polite. But is Google lumping "Islam" in with the swear words now?
Many people will love Islam and many will hate it. That's life. That's the rich tapestry that makes everyone different and interesting. Yes, some go too far and become extreme but the same can be said of almost anything. By disabling the Google Suggest tool on this phrase, Google is passing a judgement on all people, and suppressing the thoughts and ideas of all who have contributed to any debate about the subject. Shame on you, Google.