But Whose Truths?
Google modifies, tweaks, and just plain changes its search algorithm on a regular basis, most often to disrupt the effectiveness of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts. Now, however, a Google research team is trying to change the algorithm, to measure the “trustworthiness” of a page, rather than its reputation across the web.
The system – which is has not yet gone live – counts the number of “incorrect” facts within a page to determine its ranking in search results instead of its reputation or popularity, as measured by incoming links, across the web.
Google – The Internet’s Gatekeeper
This, of course, begs the questions of whose facts? Whose truths? Who will decide what is innacurate and, hence, to be downlisted and effectively censored by Google?
Google’s answers are that facts that the web unanimously agrees upon are considered to be a reasonable proxy for truth. Web pages that dissent from this consensus by containing contradictory information are to be bumped down the rankings, effectively censoring them by removing them from the bulk of the web’s users.
So, insofar as the internet’s greatest gatekeeper, Google is concerned, consensus reality will be the only reality. And, of course, Google will be the arbiter of that consensus.
I guess, if Google’s plan is allowed to be implemented, nobody will read where you wrote, “And yet it moves.“
Tags: Bias | Censorship | Conformity | Consensus | Consensus Reality | Dissent | Facts | Google | Innovation | Internet | Lies | Myths | Observer Bias | Politics | Science | Social Engineering | Stagnation | Technology | Truth