Human beings might be the smartest species to ever walk the earth, but that doesn’t save us from our fair share of shortcomings. In fact, if we look back, we’ll see how the stated shortcomings have popped up on the surface time and time again throughout our history, thus forcing us to look for some semblance of a defensive cover. We will, on our part, find an answer to this question once we bring dedicated regulatory bodies into the fold. Having a well-defined authority in each and every area was a game-changer, as it really wasted no time in making up for our flaws. However, such an accommodating dynamic would also bring a level of vulnerability into play, and this vulnerability will be wholly exploited following technology’s takeover. You see, technology and its layered created a scenario where certain people suddenly found themselves with an unprecedented shot at targeting others, while facing no consequences whatsoever for doing so. Fortunately, though, we are now witnessing another shift in the horizons, and a recent lawmakers’ request involving Google proves that big time.
A group of US lawmakers have formally urged Google to rework the way it handles all the abortion-related searches. The request comes after Reuters released a sensational report, which claimed how the company was directing users seeking information about abortion clinics to anti-abortion centers. Signed by Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) and Representative Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), and many other Democratic leaders, the official letter sent to the company pointed out that nearly 11 percent of Google’s abortion-related searches in trigger law states, where abortion will become illegal if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, were found to be delivering inaccurate results. The stated issue reaches up a whole new scale once you move on to Google Maps, which as CCDH (Centre for Countering Digital Hate) mentioned, saw around 37 percent of such searches leading to outright fake clinics.
“Directing women towards fake clinics that traffic in misinformation and don’t provide comprehensive health services is dangerous to women’s health and undermines the integrity of Google’s search results,” the letter reads. “If Google must continue showing these misleading results in search results and Google Maps, the results should, at the very least, be appropriately labeled.”
The issue even talks to Google’s gigantic ad business. According to CCDH, a sizeable 28 percent ads appearing on top of search results page for abortion queries were fake.
“Any organization that wants to advertise to people seeking information about abortion services on Google must be certified and show in-ad disclosures that clearly state whether they do or do not offer abortions,” said Google spokesperson, Nicolas Lopez