Google's Project Owl - pronged attack on fake news/content

[Parsh]

Google isn’t planning to rid fake news from its search results -- but it’s trying to purge it from the top.

The moves follow months after criticism of Google and Facebook Inc. for hosting misleading information, particular tied to the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
While Facebook has faced a backlash for the spread of fake news across its social network, Google has been criticized for results that leap to the top for specific queries. For example, last month for the search query, “is Obama planning a coup,” the top result produced a blatantly wrong article, and did so in a feature snippet.

With “problematic searches”, Google is coping with the consequences of the “post-truth” world. People are increasingly producing content that reaffirms a particular world view or opinion regardless of actual facts. In addition, people are searching in enough volume for rumors, urban myths, slurs or derogatory topics that they’re influencing the search suggestions that Google offers in offensive and possibly dangerous ways.

You can find more information in this other article stating some more details regarding the move, some highlights as follows.
In particular, Google is launching:

• a new feedback form for search suggestions, plus formal policies about why suggestions might be removed.
• a new feedback form for “Featured Snippets” answers.
• a new emphasis on authoritative content to improve search quality.

“We were highlighting low-quality content in search results,” said Ben Gomes, VP of Engineering, Google.

Some of the auto-completes that are deemed offensive (such as “are women evil”) will be eliminated. Google is adding a feature to allow searchers online to flag these instances with a feedback form.
Earlier this month, the company introduced a tool allowing publishers to fact-check articles in its search rankings.

 

[FreddyFreeloader]

Google now the "Thought Police." Good luck with that!
Meanwhile, Google's YouTube shows gays being tossed off the tops of office buildings, live-streaming murders.

 

[Winter Soldier]

Hoping for the best move: our life is Google-based..now!

 

[Parsh]

Google now the "Thought Police." Good luck with that!
Meanwhile, Google's YouTube shows gays being tossed off the tops of office buildings, live-streaming murders.

The latter you mentioned is related to violence, graphic content, moral (/social policing?)... and the needed restrictions on such public channels. This comes an a different case than above.
However, one can relate it to the "Thought Police", a strong term indeed!

 

[FreddyFreeloader]

I just saw a chance to call Google out, they think they are the arbiters what news people should see all the while not having any sense of values themselves - except $$$$$$.

 

[Arequire]

I just saw a chance to call Google out, they think they are the arbiters what news people should see all the while not having any sense of values themselves - except $$$$$$.

The problem with this argument is who exactly do you expect to be that arbiter? The general public obviously can't be trusted seeing as they're the ones spreading this fake news and news organisations report fake news as legitimate due to their nature of wanting to break stories before their competitors. The degradation of trust in traditional media due to things such as political bias hasn't helped and a lot of people now choose to consume their news via social media, which easily serves at a breeding ground for fake news and misinformation.

At the end of the day It's not about Google dictating what news you see (you can always choose to ignore any news you see while using any of their services or just stop using their services altogether), it's about them making sure that the correct information is displayed to consumers on the single most trafficked site on the web. Fake news and incorrect information can have a massively damaging influence when conceivably over a billion people see it on any given day.

 

[Handsome Recluse]

@Arequire I think they're losing ratings because they're simply wrong like saying Trump can't win when he did.

 

[inuyasha]

i wonder why google hasnt made an antivirus program yet. i think it would be good

 

[jamescv7]

Fake news is already a big issue in this generation and it's important to eliminate unnecessary post that can mislead the actual information brought about.

However that should conclude much deeper criteria like for example, a witness posted an information which can bring huge changes in a matter situation.

Google definitely should revised the search result blocking and provide bots more strict on website index.


--------------------------

A different story where legitimate media stands may probably provide one-sided story.

 

[Arequire]

i wonder why google hasnt made an antivirus program yet. i think it would be good

Cost vs benefit and the fact the market's already extremely competitive and saturated.
In short: It wouldn't benefit them financially and they'd have to compete with the likes of Avast who already control almost 21% of the market by themselves.

 

[Ink]

Founder of Wikipedia plans to counter fake News with WikiTribune

Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia, is launching a new online publication which will aim to fight fake news by pairing professional journalists with an army of volunteer community contributors.
Wikitribune plans to pay for the reporters by raising money from a crowdfunding campaign.

Wales intends to cover general issues, such as US and UK politics, through to specialist science and technology.

Those who donate will become supporters, who in turn will have a say in which subjects and story threads the site focuses on. And Wales intends that the community of readers will fact-check and subedit published articles.

 

[Ink]

i wonder why google hasnt made an antivirus program yet. i think it would be good

It's ineffective, costly and they already has backend services to counter malware and phishing that protect all Google users on all supported platforms.

 

[Fonda Bellamy]

Seriously google have back end services?

 

[Handsome Recluse]

or this could happen.....

 

[Ink]

Seriously google have back end services?

No, Google doesn't exist. It's a creation by Microsoft.