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Google Allowed Advertisers To Target 'Jewish Parasite,' 'Black People Ruin Everything' (buzzfeed.com)

Alex Kantrowitz, reporting for BuzzFeed News: Google, the world's biggest advertising platform, allows advertisers to specifically target ads to people typing racist and bigoted terms into its search bar, BuzzFeed News has discovered. Not only that, Google will suggest additional racist and bigoted terms once you type some into its ad buying tool. Type "White people ruin," as a potential advertising keyword into Google's ad platform, and Google will suggest you run ads next to searches including "black people ruin neighborhoods." Type "Why do Jews ruin everything," and Google will suggest you run ads next to searches including "the evil jew" and "jewish control of banks." BuzzFeed News ran an ad campaign targeted to all these keywords and others this week. The ads went live and were visible when we searched for the keywords we'd selected. Google's ad buying platform tracked the ad views. Following our inquiry, Google disabled every keyword in this ad campaign save one -- an exact match for "blacks destroy everything," is still eligible. Google told BuzzFeed News that just because a phrase is eligible does not guarantee an ad campaign will run against it. A total of 17 ad impressions were served before the keywords were disabled.

139 comments

  1. Just like Facebook? by WoodstockJeff · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Deja vu, except for the company name.

    1. Re:Just like Facebook? by danbert8 · · Score: 1

      Indeed, can we mark TFA as redundant?

      --
      Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
    2. Re:Just like Facebook? by Luthair · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Really though, are the creators of automated systems meant to think of every possible questionable phrase?

      If someone pins a hateful ad on a bulletin board are the owners letting the person do it or have they just not seen it yet?

    3. Re:Just like Facebook? by Daetrin · · Score: 2

      ProPublica caught Facebook, and Buzzfeed caught Google. So which important high-traffic website is next? Is anyone focusing on Bing to see if it suffers from the same problem?

      [crickets]

      Hello? Anyone there?

      .

      --
      This Space Intentionally Left Blank
    4. Re:Just like Facebook? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What about credibility or authorship?

      Example:
      "I hate jewish parasites - Luthair"

    5. Re: Just like Facebook? by dougdonovan · · Score: 1

      bad google.

    6. Re:Just like Facebook? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Bing's only user is Ned Ryerson.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    7. Re:Just like Facebook? by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 1

      I'm amazed they got 17 impressions. Was the campaign likely to get hundreds, or low-budget and picking up 2-3 a day?

    8. Re:Just like Facebook? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Seriously?With all the big data and fancy algorithms created by those mega brain they hire, you don't think they could filter that out?

      My best charitable thought is I would think it's an oversight on the designer's part.

      "Oops, we forget the asshole subroutine."

      You KNOW they can do it. Just look at how apropos the dinky CAPTCHA algorithm is.

    9. Re:Just like Facebook? by JohnFen · · Score: 1

      Hoards of free porn aficionados say that you're wrong.

    10. Re:Just like Facebook? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really though, are the creators of automated systems meant to think of every possible questionable phrase?

      Non-clairvoyant people ruin everything.

    11. Re:Just like Facebook? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really though, are the creators of automated systems meant to think of every possible questionable phrase?

      There are laws covering ad standards, only they have never really been applied to the internet.

      Facebook and Google are pretty much making it fairly evident that the exact same laws need to apply to their advertising as everyone else. And I assure you, "blacks ruin everything" would be pretty much illegal in any other media, so why would Facebook and Google get an exemption?

      If someone pins a hateful ad on a bulletin board are the owners letting the person do it or have they just not seen it yet?

      And tell us how accepting payment to place that hateful ad is the same as someone putting it up without your knowledge?

      Once they're accepting money for it, they kind of have a responsibility to be accountable for it. If you're getting paid for ads, by the time you're accepting money for it, you don't get to not be responsible for it.

      And, like Trump making moral equivalences between neo-nazis and people who protest against them is tacitly approving of neo-nazis, accepting money for these ad terms and saying "well, we can't help the kinds of ads people want to buy" is saying "we don't care, we got paid, what else can we do?".

      Facebook and Google can't just say they bear no responsibility for their systems.

    12. Re:Just like Facebook? by Luthair · · Score: 1

      And tell us how accepting payment to place that hateful ad is the same as someone putting it up without your knowledge?

      So change the scenario slightly and add a vending machine that dispenses pins for a quarter

    13. Re:Just like Facebook? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No one hoards Horde porn, even if it's free.

    14. Re:Just like Facebook? by Gorobei · · Score: 1

      Well, Bing is only used to search for porn videos. Given "black people ruin porn", Bing made a noble effort to cater to my needs.

    15. Re:Just like Facebook? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      Really though, are the creators of automated systems meant to think of every possible questionable phrase?

      That is not a good argument. Google could easily build a filter that could stop 90% or more of these phrases. They will never stop 100%, but they could easily do way better.

      But should they? Is it really their role be society's ideological and moral gatekeepers?

    16. Re:Just like Facebook? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Depends. Do this vending machine dispense pins with whatever wording you supply - or pins with pre-selected phrases?

    17. Re:Just like Facebook? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really though, are the creators of automated systems meant to think of every possible questionable phrase?

      That is not a good argument. Google could easily build a filter that could stop 90% or more of these phrases. They will never stop 100%, but they could easily do way better.

      But should they? Is it really their role be society's ideological and moral gatekeepers?

      Considering how much influence they have over information ti's probably a conflict of interest for them to be moral gatekeepers.

    18. Re: Just like Facebook? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I dunno about that, I'm a white male and Google hasn't discriminated against me as far as I can tell. But I'm fairly well educated, well travelled, married to an immigrant and realize that's its not the color of your skin that makes you a bad person or not.

    19. Re:Just like Facebook? by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      You don't get to absolve yourself of responsibility just because you created an automated system. If you are making money of such things then you are responsible.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    20. Re:Just like Facebook? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Really though, are the creators of automated systems meant to think of every possible questionable phrase?

      That is not a good argument. Google could easily build a filter that could stop 90% or more of these phrases. They will never stop 100%, but they could easily do way better.

      But should they? Is it really their role be society's ideological and moral gatekeepers?

      My instinct is to say yes they should, however I'll take a step back and look again. I think the bottom line is when payment is involved their should be higher standards, so yes they should definitely fix the systems to it is more difficult for these kind of things to occur.

      Looking at it yet again, I'm somewhat of the opinion that micro-targeting ads to deliver political messages is likely something we may want to ban in general. The reason is it is too easy for people to stay in an echo chamber as is, and I would argue open an honest across the board advertising is better for democracy than targeting every voter with what it takes to get them to the polls. That way you reduce some of the talking out of both sides of their mouth crap. As it is, if you did it near enough of an election you could target the white racist vote at the same time you sent an opposite add condemning your opponent for supporting white racists.

      Note that I'm not proposing restricting what can be said. I'm just proposing making it impossible to target message 32334 against voter 3, 17, 35323, 323232 and the opposite message against others and such.

      Some of this might be mitigated against for a requirement to have all advertising by anyone automatically made public, though again, if you do things close enough to an election it may not matter. Then again, I'm greatly in favor of say a 2 week voting period. Positions last up to six years. The vote can take more than a day.

    21. Re:Just like Facebook? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly.

      At the end of the day, this is about basic human decency.

      Sure, have your opinion about people of other cultures, morphologies, belief systems, whatnot.

      But for fuck's sake do not expect that such behavior, which is a deliberate source of conflict, is in any way entitled to proceed without being impeded by private enterprises of good will. Google isn't the federal government, and isn't obligated to respect the first amendment. Neither is Facebook. They're required by their shareholders to produce ROI, and bad behaviors like this reduce the stock price because most investors recognize that such actions undermine one or another chunk of market actors (usually the marginalized ones) and take steps to prevent themselves from being seen as aiding and abetting behaviours which could lose them market share and client base.

    22. Re:Just like Facebook? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch

      puns like that should be remanded to the nearest rubbish bin!!

    23. Re:Just like Facebook? by Cajun+Hell · · Score: 1

      Which just goes to show, those people are all the same.

      Why do ad people have to ruin everything?

      --
      "Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
    24. Re:Just like Facebook? by Stolovaya · · Score: 1

      So phone carriers should be responsible for all the content that passes over their wires?

    25. Re:Just like Facebook? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have a multiracial family. Still wouldn't bother trying to 'blacklist' or 'whitelist' (hrm...) terms. Doubt they were in the business requirements. And if they are now, then good luck to whomever is tasked with that. Monitoring advertisers use of the platform, as they use it, seems to make a little more sense. Even then, if we're reading about it here...someone probably would do that for them anyways.

    26. Re: Just like Facebook? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just like my digital self does not enjoy the bill of rights, Constitution or laws governing physical harm. An individual can be harmed digitally (identity theft) and tough for the victim. Nevermind gross negligence by the keepers of the keys.
        Great point, illegal in every other form of media. At least the trend is consistent.

    27. Re: Just like Facebook? by loufoque · · Score: 1

      Please do explain to me how the most basic expression of free speech is illegal in the USA

    28. Re:Just like Facebook? by Luthair · · Score: 1

      Have you never seen a bulletin board before? Do you not know how pins work?

  2. Don't be evil? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hmmmm...

  3. Sounds like Google is accepting of BDS then by CajunArson · · Score: 0

    If that's true then apparently Google is tolerant of Boycott Divest & Sanction, just like Berkely.

    P.S. --> Wanna see a picture of an angry white racist who attempted to stop a Jewish speaker from delivering a peaceful intellectual talk at Berkely?

    Just look here: http://www.jammiewf.com/2017/d...

    --
    AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
  4. Not to sound racist but... by tbuddy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm not seeing why this is a problem. You're not going to eliminate racism by hiding it. It's not like a confederate statue staring you in the face, you have to go looking for racist garbage for you to find it on Google search and if you do find some racist garbage you can get rid of it fairly easy with their reporting tools.

    People want information and advertisers want information. You can find perfectly legal porn sites and the like and they can advertise. I'm just not seeing the social dilemma. It's not like their getting links to fake pharmacies that can sell you knock off Viagra that could be potentially dangerous and lacks quality control (which they had an issue with before and fixed). I'm a big proponent of people being accepting and part of that is being accepting of people who I think have horrible world view points. As long as it doesn't harm me people can do what they like, unless it is BuzzFeed news. That's literally Hitler. #ICan'tEven

    1. Re:Not to sound racist but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "You're not going to eliminate racism by hiding it." - Agree, we need to round up these idiots using their hate campaigns on social media. They are a violent ideology and a danger to society. They need to be put to hard labor until they understand the lives of most poor migrants to this country.

    2. Re:Not to sound racist but... by Captain+Splendid · · Score: 1, Insightful

      You're not going to eliminate racism by hiding it.

      Sure you are. No baby is born racist, they get taught that shit by someone or something.

      Your idea is sound in principle ("information wants to be free"), but in practice it doesn't really work out that way.

      I'm just not seeing the social dilemma.

      Others do, though. Are there opinions worth any less than yours?

      --
      Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
    3. Re:Not to sound racist but... by Vermonter · · Score: 4, Insightful

      When you ban certain ideas, those ideas end up getting discussed in private where they are far less likely to be disputed. The best thing to do is to invite bigoted ideologies to be discussed openly, so that counterarguments can be put forth and the general public can see why they are bad ideas. Sadly it's less effort to ban offensive ideas than to debate them.

      Just like prohibition didn't stop drinking, banning offensive ideas does not kill them.

    4. Re:Not to sound racist but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "you have to go looking for racist garbage for you to find it on Google search" Haha, no.

    5. Re:Not to sound racist but... by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.
      Douglas Adams

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    6. Re:Not to sound racist but... by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 0

      Negative, studies have shown that white babies as young as six months cry when shown black faces, and smile when shown white faces. It's inborn and unmodifiable.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    7. Re:Not to sound racist but... by hey! · · Score: 1

      Well, eliminating racism is kind of a straw argument. Is anyone actually arguing that racism will disappear because Google took action in this case?

      I suspect the reason that Google stepped in here was profit maximization, not social engineering.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    8. Re:Not to sound racist but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      This isn't about banning racism, it's about whether Google is profiting from racism.

    9. Re: Not to sound racist but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Actually, science shows that babies demonstrate in-group preferences. So, yes babies are born racist.

    10. Re:Not to sound racist but... by dbialac · · Score: 1

      Because, you know, people don't say the same things in private.

    11. Re:Not to sound racist but... by JohnFen · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Those studies don't support your conclusion. What those studies show is that infants fear anything that is different from what they've been experiencing. It's not specifically a race thing. It's also why infants tend to be picky about their food, are suspicious of new toys, don't like it when their living space is redecorated, etc.

      The reason is pretty well established, too: it is safer to stick with what you know is OK than to risk something that you don't have experience with.

      And, the effect eases with experience and education. Nothing about these studies indicates that racism, specifically, is hardwired or that it's inevitable.

    12. Re:Not to sound racist but... by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      I'm afraid that's not true. These ideas are sticky in a lot of people's minds, especially the uneducated, auto-didacts, and the not fully educated. We let them see these ideas, they're going to believe them despite the ridiculous conclusions to which they lead, and before we know it the trains are running on time to the camps.

      The best thing we can do is attempt to inoculate people beforehand by crapping all over the ideas before anyone sees them, and the next best thing is to eliminate them from the public square. It really helps to see advocates of these vile ideas unable to speak without hired thugs to protect them.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    13. Re:Not to sound racist but... by dbialac · · Score: 1

      Not only that, but if you want to create ads to fight racism, you can do that by targeting these kinds of terms. But the knee-jerk reaction by SJW's doesn't give them a chance to actually consider this fact.

    14. Re:Not to sound racist but... by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 2
      ..Okay, here's where I have problems with what you're saying:

      You're not going to eliminate racism by hiding it.

      While as a stand-alone statement this is true (racism is like cockroaches, after all; it prefers existing away from the light -- at least until they feel they have 'strength in numbers') this does not mean that anyone, individual or especially a business of any kind, should CATER TO IT/THEM -- not unless they want to be 'guilty by association'. By catering to it/them (by selling them ads) that is precisely what Google did -- and they implicitly admitted their guilt in this case by deleting everything once they were called out on it.

      You can find perfectly legal porn sites and the like and they can advertise.

      You cannot conflate pornography with racism and porn websites with selling advertising space to racists/racist organzations or anyone who wants to leverage racism to promote their business. Two totally different things.

      I'm a big proponent of people being accepting and part of that is being accepting of people who I think have horrible world view points.

      Sure. I'm all for 'freedom of speech'. HOWEVER: 'Freedom of Speech' does not mean 'freedom to say whatever the hell you want and suffer no consequences from the Court of Public Opinion. Racism is NASTY and should NOT be tolerated. Sure, let them 'out' themselves all they like -- then we know who they are so it can be made crystal-clear to them that their attitudes and opinions have no place in modern society.

      As long as it doesn't harm me people can do what they like

      So, in other words, you in actuality stand for nothing except yourself? I think you'd better clarify yourself on that point, because otherwise I'd have to say that your self-centered and apathetic attitude is, to put it mildly, disappointing.

    15. Re:Not to sound racist but... by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

      The issue is that, in this moment in time, people who strongly identify with either right-wing or left-wing ideology tend to prefer shouting down those who hold opposing views instead of engaging them in actual discussion. Additionally, there appears to be extreme reluctance - on both sides - to even acknowledge that perhaps some part of what "the other side" believes is a legitimate concern.

      --
      #DeleteChrome
    16. Re:Not to sound racist but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh yes, the famous "it's only taught" theory. You're a fucking retard dude. That shit is definitely born in nature itself. People like you are the regressives. You think you can socially engineer the society you want by just removing all "the bad things."

      You sound just like the christian right. I'm sick of ideologues who always know better.

    17. Re:Not to sound racist but... by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      And that "different from everything they've been experiencing" for white babies is black people. Is it any wonder we have the systemic structural racism problem we do? It perpetuates itself automatically in families where white babies are raised by white adults.

      "it is safer to stick with what you know is OK than to risk something that you don't have experience with."
      Dude, why are you making excuses for racists? We don't need to be making their lives easier. We need to be driving them out. The whole idea of diversity is to make people comfortable with things they don't have experience with. Please stop repeating these outdated shibboleths.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    18. Re:Not to sound racist but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A confederate statue has never stared me in the face. I'd have to go looking for that too.

    19. Re:Not to sound racist but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Retarded argument.
      Who is going to be the moral arbiter deciding what ideas and speech must be banned from public space?
      I think gays prancing around in the streets naked is a terrible idea.
      Are we going to ban that next?

    20. Re:Not to sound racist but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Sure you are. No baby is born racist,

      Actually, babies are born racist. Well, not literally racist as "race" is too complex of a concept for babies to grasp, but babies do discriminate. One of the early stages of development is learning to discriminate between people who look like you/your parents, and those who don't. It's part of learning to identify people they know (parents) from strangers

      This is why much emphasis is played on creating "diverse" environments. If a baby (or even a grown adult) is exposed to seeing people of all races working together in harmony, they are less likely to develop prejudices.

      In other words, you eliminate racism not by hiding, but by showing. Show a better alternative.

      they get taught that shit by someone or something

      Again, this means the solution isn't to hide racism, but to teach tolerance. This isn't "information wants to be free". This is "the answer to hate speech isn't censorship, but more free speech", where you speak your own better ideas, you offer your well reasoned rebuttals (as in, try not to shame and call them racists, that usually has the opposite effect)

      And we know this works in practice because we've TRIED your way of hiding and shaming and cornering the racists, and the racists didn't go away. If anything, it made them stronger as they see your attempts to hide them as oppression.

      Conversely, previous successes in combating hate and prejudice was done using what I said: activists stood out and spoke out. They didn't hide nor did they demand the racists to go hide. The racists can try to speak out against them, and sometimes things even got violent, but that just made them appear as fools and violet thugs to everyone watching. And that was how the racists lost support.

    21. Re:Not to sound racist but... by tbuddy · · Score: 1

      Totally good point. The same way that competing companies post ads on their competition. It's not as though there aren't some non-profits that are flush with cash who should be doing this. Even if it's not their target market they could get racists to rage about them, thusly get more word of mouth. It's could be a better spend on than targeting people who agree with their viewpoints in not condoning racism.

    22. Re:Not to sound racist but... by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Actually, people find out about racism all by themselves. It is one of the common ways to of fuckups to elevate themselves above others. Fuckups that are still kids do discover it all by themselves. The idea is pretty simple and obvious: Identify some characteristic somebody else has that they cannot do anything about and are not actually responsible for and that you yourself do not have. Then attach negative meaning to it.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    23. Re:Not to sound racist but... by JohnFen · · Score: 1

      Dude, why are you making excuses for racists?

      I'm not. I'm debunking one of the common excuses they use.

      But I'm not going to avoid stating things that I think are true just because scumbags might misunderstand or misuse what I say. They're scumbags and aren't worth that amount of consideration.

    24. Re:Not to sound racist but... by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Indeed. And it validates those ideas and the people that have them by the "David vs. Goliath" effect. (Works something like this: "They have to suppress the idea. Hence the idea must have merit, because otherwise they would have actual arguments against it and would not need to suppress it.)

      But the cave-man reflex is to apply violence to anything they not not like, in modern times by proxy of the big fetish of "the law". This routinely makes matters much worse.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    25. Re:Not to sound racist but... by gweihir · · Score: 2

      Google is profiting from what people want. If you force them to censor, you are banning things. While this state of affairs is not good, the proposed "cure" is far worse.

      Caveat: I do think Google is an evil large corporation these days, but that is the normal state of things in capitalism. (No, communism is even worse, there you have an evil, all-encompassing state.)

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    26. Re: Not to sound racist but... by freeze128 · · Score: 1

      This kinda sounds like a meme... like cats are jerks.

    27. Re:Not to sound racist but... by gweihir · · Score: 2

      You are advocating censorship and propaganda. These are universally abused as soon as established and far worse than having stupid people think stupid things on their own. The only think we can to without making matters much worse is to be resilient as a society and tolerate the idiots. Any attempt at suppression is not only futile, but dangerous.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    28. Re:Not to sound racist but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's also true with any belief. Religious / political, etc. The harder one argues with other people on beliefs the more those being argued at cling to them.

      Hiding racism under the covers or exposing it won't make a difference to those that believe it - it just lets others know where they are.

      People are not convinced by logic - especially when the topic being discussed is not logical either way.

    29. Re:Not to sound racist but... by gweihir · · Score: 1

      My guess would be Google actually just is using some weak AI mechanisms and they did not feed in a list of things that are "forbidden". Does say bad things about some of their customers, but the world is full of idiots and _that_ cannot be fixed.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    30. Re:Not to sound racist but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What do you think the FBI is for? FINDING TERRORISTS.

    31. Re:Not to sound racist but... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 0

      It's a problem because Google doesn't want to enable people to send targeted messages to the far right.

      I'll defend your right to free speech to the death, but I won't help you advertise your racist messages.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    32. Re:Not to sound racist but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've been called a Nazi and a racist for voting for a person the left doesn't like. That's right, just voting.

      I no longer care what they think. They are stupid and debating them is pointless. They haven't the first clue of economics, how voting works, or basic civics. The average liberal is too dumb to debate anymore, the ones that have ANY intelligence are no longer liberal. The left consist of corrupt politicians who use people who are so dumb they don't realize they are only supporting blatant corruption.

      So, no I don't acknowledge their concerns are valid. Racist and Nazi are now words that mean you said something the left doesn't like, they no longer mean what you would think they mean.

    33. Re:Not to sound racist but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Prohibition wasn't black and white either, it did help curb rampant alcoholism in the US.

    34. Re:Not to sound racist but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In practice it will mostly be used to sell advertisements that reinforce those ideas rather than challenge them. The social media companies are all creating echo chambers

    35. Re:Not to sound racist but... by hey! · · Score: 1

      Right. In a world where everyone was perfectly logical and unemotional we'd say, "Well, the AI classifier identified distinct groups of racist customers." But in the world we live in reputation matters, and the most valuable customers don't want to be associated, even tenuously, with these morons.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    36. Re:Not to sound racist but... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      It's not specifically a race thing.

      Not specifically. But it is still a race thing. If an Ethiopian child has only seen black faces, they are going to have a negative reaction if a white/green/purple person walks in the room. Children have a natural dislike of things they are not used to ... including people of different races.

      And, the effect eases with experience and education. Nothing about these studies indicates that racism, specifically, is hardwired or that it's inevitable.

      First you say it can be eased with education ... then you say it doesn't exist.

      Your use of the weasel word "specifically" indicates that you don't even believe your own argument, since no one is claiming that it is "specific" to race.

    37. Re:Not to sound racist but... by JohnFen · · Score: 1

      But it is still a race thing.

      No, it's a difference thing. Babies aren't saying "not my race!", they're saying "something I've never seen!" It's adults that put the special weight on the racial differences and project that weight onto babies.

      First you say it can be eased with education ... then you say it doesn't exist.

      Huh? Where did I do that? Perhaps I was unclear... I'm saying that people pointing to those studies as proving racism is inborn are misunderstanding the studies. I'm not saying racism doesn't exist. It clearly does.

      My usage of the word "specifically" was intended to clarify this distinction. Obviously, it failed to do so.

    38. Re:Not to sound racist but... by gweihir · · Score: 1

      In that world we would not have racists, because racism is just a mechanism of losers to claim "I am better than those others because they have race characteristic XYZ, but I do not". Listen to some black racists some time and the utter stupidity of the racist idea becomes glaringly obvious.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    39. Re:Not to sound racist but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sure. The alcoholics poisoned themselves to death at higher rates from black market hooch.

    40. Re:Not to sound racist but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually you're a racist faggot and you will go away one way or another.

    41. Re:Not to sound racist but... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      But it is still a race thing.

      No, it's a difference thing.

      This is a logical fallacy. If A is caused by B, C, or D, then you it is not logical to say that B doesn't cause A because A can also be caused by other things.

      Very young children have a natural aversion to different racial characteristics that they are not familiar with. They ALSO have a natural aversion to people with asymmetrical faces. These don't cease to be facts just because they can both be classified more generally as "differences".

    42. Re:Not to sound racist but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Very young children have a natural aversion to different racial characteristics that they are not familiar with. They ALSO have a natural aversion to people with asymmetrical faces. These don't cease to be facts just because they can both be classified more generally as "differences".

      Actually, they aren't facts. You see, you are contending that the differences are racial as opposed to mere differences that are by happenstance, correlated with race.

      You could achieve the same result with a Clown Face or the Smurfs.

    43. Re:Not to sound racist but... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      you are contending that the differences are racial as opposed to mere differences that are by happenstance, correlated with race.

      No. I am absolutely not claiming that. I am claiming that unfamiliar differences can cause aversion ... and some of those differences are correlated with race. Many other differences that cause aversion are not correlated with race. So I think we are in full agreement on the facts, just not on how logic applies to those facts.

      If X causes Y, it doesn't suddenly stop causing Y just because Z also causes Y.

      You could achieve the same result with a Clown Face or the Smurfs.

      Absolutely true. Aversion can be caused my many types of unfamiliar differences.

    44. Re:Not to sound racist but... by Baron_Yam · · Score: 1

      >No baby is born racist, they get taught that shit by someone or something.

      They're not born racist, but they do learn fairly quickly to prefer people who look most like their parents.

      As you get older, you tend (not always, there's also the allure of the exotic) to look for a mate who looks similar - but not too similar - to the people you grew up around. There's also some evidence there's a pheromone effect in play, as women have been found to prefer body odour similar to their father's.

      We have plenty of social programming to divide everything into 'us' and 'them', and skin colour and general appearance are easy markers. ...We're not born racist, but we're damn well born with the programming in place to BECOME racist. However one of the nice things about our big brains and self-awareness is we can overcome Nature when she screws up.

    45. Re:Not to sound racist but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yup. Google's about profit.

      Profit comes from people clicking ads etc. This is a race-independent behavior, and by marginalizing one group or another, they alienate people and risk losing market share....and they are sensitive to very small changes in their market share, especially when it correlates strongly with perception of google as a bad actor, or at any rate, facilitating bad actor behavior without enacting controls.

    46. Re:Not to sound racist but... by Xylantiel · · Score: 1

      It seems Google itself is not comfortable with profiting from racist targeting. No force needed. This is just pointing out that it is happening and showing that even Google does feel some shame for selling this kind of targeting. Freedom of speech does not guarantee your right to use a particular advertising service in a particular way. If Google and Facebook want to be the fascists' and the racists' best buddies, they might lose some respect. (Now I agree that respect is largely undeserved, but there is an argument that the data miners really have drunk their cool-aid and think they are helping the world and not driving it mad with the collateral damage of their culture manipulation machines... er marketing technology.)

    47. Re:Not to sound racist but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Found the racist.

    48. Re:Not to sound racist but... by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Appearance is a proxy for relatedness; who looks most like you? Your parents, children & siblings. Who looks least like you? People of other races.

      So any gene that caused people to like similar looking people (and by implication dislike those who looked different) would be favouring itself. Once it existed, it would be self-reinforcing.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    49. Re:Not to sound racist but... by dwye · · Score: 1

      And that "different from everything they've been experiencing" for white babies is black people

      So Southerners raised by black nannies, cooks, maids, etc., were racism-free?

      Mind, this is possible; I have heard (on TV) people claim that they experienced less in the South than in South Boston.

  5. Are these actively used? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Anyone can put together any combination of words that adds up to a custom-made definition of "hate". Furthermore, what about other languages? Should Google hire people to cover all languages and spend their days thinking of hateful sentences to ban?

    If only 17 ads were served during X numbers of hours or days or weeks before the sentence was banned (and probably served to the BuzzFeed employees who did the research), then they are not really addressing any problem. It seems like a fake news.

    It is likely, though, that BuzzFeed in their market research identified hateful leftists and are actively marketing to them using well crafted ad-words.

  6. What about other terms? by tomhath · · Score: 1

    "Pit bulls dangerous" allowed? How about ads targeting "Crooked Hillary"? Or even worse, what if I want to market a product to members of the gay community? Can I use the word "Queer"?

    1. Re:What about other terms? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Shaddap nazi faggot poodle owner.

    2. Re:What about other terms? by tomhath · · Score: 1

      You sound like a vegan sheep owner.

  7. This is Sparta^H^H^H^H^H^Hmarketing by Archon · · Score: 1

    1. Google's primary income is from their ad platform.
    2. Targeting is what makes their ad platform competitive.
    3. Hate speech is protected speech in the US. ...
    4. Profit?

  8. Moderate top level article as redundant by XXongo · · Score: 1
    Yep. Slashdot ran pretty much this same story yesterday, except Facebook instead of Google.

    Are we going to get the same story every day until we run out of different platforms you can put a search term into?

    1. Re:Moderate top level article as redundant by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      TFA raises important issues about what kind of society we want to have. Should giant corporations be the moral gatekeepers? Should people be allowed to shop for a Confederate flag, or should Google ban products based on the ideology they symbolize? What about a "Black Lives Matter" t-shirt?

      You may have an opinion about Confederate flags and/or BLM t-shirts, but if so, then you are missing the point. TFA is advocating that your opinion DOESN'T MATTER, and instead of individual opinions, we should just accept and DEMAND the appropriate corporate policies.

    2. Re:Moderate top level article as redundant by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      More to the point how much of this is automated.
      The problem with these adaptive and learning systems is they pickup trends without any moral background. And the size of google it is nearly impossible to to monitor everything.

      Being nearly every human probably has a moral failing often this moral failing they don't realize and often celibate it. Makes it difficult to code a bias moral engine.

      Most racist vindicat themselves with some logic, often saying that they are unfairly targeted, or the groups they hate are getting it too easy. Or such groups are some how more dangerous then the normal population. Then reinforce it with other historical or religious presence.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    3. Re: Moderate top level article as redundant by loufoque · · Score: 1

      The problem is that they do filter based on some arbitrary morals, which is bad.

      Those systems should be ideology-agnostic.

  9. Dupe! by Thelasko · · Score: 0

    Come on msmash! The story this is a dupe of is still on the main page!

    Just like old times...

    --
    One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
    1. Re:Dupe! by JohnFen · · Score: 1

      It's not really a dupe, as it involves entirely different companies.

    2. Re:Dupe! by Thelasko · · Score: 2

      It's not really a dupe, as it involves entirely different companies.

      I just realized Google and Facebook might as well be the same company...

      --
      One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
    3. Re:Dupe! by Xylantiel · · Score: 1

      The Dataminers.

    4. Re:Dupe! by Xylantiel · · Score: 1

      better yet... Miners of The Data, where "The Data" is the personal information of a large fraction of people on the planet.

  10. I wonder what related terms show for the following by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ethnic Cleansing
    Final Solution
    Gibt Ihn Etwas Zu Fressen
    Kill De White People

    But I agree this all does seem a little bit like fake news and strange coincidence that this is in the news about Google and Facebook today. Probably to undermine their standing as good corporate citizens as the emergent alt-right American Fascist regime seeks to entrench itself against the so-called chemtrail-backed globalist "deep state".

  11. This is a feature, not a bug by XXongo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Actually, I think this should be considered as a feature, not a bug.

    If you are, say, the Jewish Antidefamation League, people who put in the search term "Jews ruin everything" and "evil Jews" and "Jewish control of banks" into Google search are exactly the people you want to serve advertising intended to change public opinion.

  12. Opportunities Lost by Jonathan+C.+Patschke · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Ages ago, before torrents and automated enforcement of the DMCA, one could find direct-download "warez," "keygens," and "cracks" easily through major search engines.

    One day, I was searching for a particular software crack so that I could try it without borrowing a key dongle, and I got a notice from Google directing me to a drug rehabilitation hotline. I'd never even considered that people might use Google to look for crack cocaine, but, thanks to the naiveté of keyword-matching, there was the opportunity to get help for an addiction I thankfully did not have.

    I'm sure all sorts of hateful organizations paid Google for the opportunity to sell swag to bigots. I'm sure Google spent their money just as easily as they spent money from people buying access to nicer keywords.

    Want to burn a bigot in the ass? Let it come out that every dime spent on buying access to "Jewish Parasite" and "Black People Ruin Everything" went to the ADL and NAACP. Give organizations like the ADL and NAACP access to those keywords gratis. Offer alternatives to hate as easily as alternatives to drugs.

    Google missed an opportunity to, relatively cheaply, buy a huge PR win and help overcome hate.

    --
    Pining for the days when The Glorious MEEPT!!! graced SlapDash with his wisdom.
    1. Re:Opportunities Lost by Kartu · · Score: 1

      It wouldn't change jack shit, not to mention that any organization could do it without google's help, although not for free.

    2. Re:Opportunities Lost by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The ADL's own bigotry would likely just push anyone who is opposed to their ideas further away. It probably wouldn't help crush the conspiracy theories that google is using the ADL and other free speech control groups to undermine freedom of thought on their platforms. Of course like any advertising entity, the profit of the advertiser is always the largest motivation, so if so called "anti-racist" groups want to push ads to presumed racists that's fine with the advertising provider.

      Would be interesting to see the stats on ambigious artworks like Taylor Swift's recent "look what you made me do" which is drawing theories that she supports any number of ideologies; including ones that she very likely doesn't. Regardless of the author's intents should a publisher capitolize on preceived perspectives?

  13. Is the fault with Google? by Weaselmancer · · Score: 1

    Did they set it up specifically that way, or is there some algorithm that picked up on dreadful people chatting and try to sell to them?

    Everybody remembers Tay, right? She started off a simple chatbot and wound up the grand wizard of the kkk by the end of the day.

    --
    Weaselmancer
    rediculous.
  14. Google PR by JohnFen · · Score: 1

    Google told BuzzFeed News that just because a phrase is eligible does not guarantee an ad campaign will run against it.

    You'd think a company as rich as Google could afford a competent spokesperson who wouldn't say really stupid shit like that.

  15. You can't eliminate racism at all by future+assassin · · Score: 1

    unless you got a solution to eliminate prejudices.

    --
    by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
  16. Re:We need to get rid of the Nazi Trumpettes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    country for immigrants and uncle Sam)

  17. Re:I wonder what related terms show for the follow by JohnFen · · Score: 1

    this all does seem a little bit like fake news

    What about this makes you think the stories are lies?

  18. Google needs to tread very carefully... by Bartles · · Score: 1

    ... the day they start engaging in significant censorship is the day they become too powerful and get slapped with common carrier status and broken up as a monopoly.

  19. its not wrong by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Or incorrect to state that many minorities ruin or want to destroy traditional American culture.

    1. Re:its not wrong by PPH · · Score: 1

      traditional American culture

      What exactly is this? One of our founding principles is placing the individual above the group or the state. And to protect the rights of any like-minded individuals to assemble and practice their own culture. That said, where exactly is the definition of this "traditional culture"?

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
  20. Mod Parent Up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just saw an example of this yesterday...some conservative blogger showed screenshots of Google having marked EVERY SINGLE one of his videos not appropriate for all advertising audiences or whatever. And there's nothing that can be done about it (except for simply not using Google services, which I have done since their recent SJW hissyfits have gone public).

    Too lazy to get the link but you get the idea.

  21. In other words... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In other words, Google provided the service that was asked for.

  22. Re:I wonder what related terms show for the follow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Kill De White People

    Probably the search terms suggested in the summary. Of course, the author wasn't offended by the fact that it allowed them to enter "white people ruin everything" and probably only wrote this article because they were planning to advertise that sentence and got the vapors when google asked them if they'd like to be racist against other races too.

  23. That Sounds Wrong! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I thought only Adam Ruins Everything!!

  24. In other words... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Google provided what people asked for.

  25. It is not Google's problem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    In Soviet Union self identification in the form of "I am Russian" or "I am Georgian" or "I am Ukrainian" and etc was considered as imperial Chauvinisme or Nazism and the person was put under surveillance from secret service. We are living in free country and having free speech and right of expression. The problem should be resolved from other end, via counter propaganda. Prohibition does not solve the problem, it only let those groups to proliferate their ideas faster.

  26. Re: Looking for Jewish Parasite? by PopeRatface · · Score: 0

    You rang?

    --
    Oy vey! It's anudda Shoah, I tells ya! Anudda Shoah!
  27. bla bla bla who cares by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...What exactly is the issue here?

    An automated service allows people to pay to target specific keywords and phrases. Why the hell should it matter what those phrases are? Seriously, who gives a damn?

    Way too many people looking or irrelevant things to get offended over these days.

  28. Lame by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of

  29. I hope they get sued by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This isn't really google's fault and there really is no issue here.... but sue them, fine them, investigate them to death and cost them lots of money. Let the leftists attack the leftist hand that feeds them. They have become so evil and unamerican they deserve everything bad that happens to them.

  30. Making Searrching Easy by JimSadler · · Score: 1

    Free speech includes ignorant speech, idiotic ideas and even speech designed to flame the fan of hatred. Trying to limit free speech is expensive, troublesome and almost a total failure. The centuries old fight against pornography is a great example. Today we have more access to a huge variety in porn than ever before. About the only item that has been beaten down is child porn simply because almost all people hate child molesters. and even when we put the sick types in prison or other facility we spend a huge sum getting the job done. It is a legitimate question to ask what would happen if we let the child porn industry run full throttle and use the money that we would have used squashing child porn and put that sum into cancer or heart disease cures? How many lives would be saved? how many children would actually be harmed if we change policies. Can we even get dollar amounts on the money used to stop child porn? My guess it is in the billions per year. It is similar to looking at the money used to fight prostitution. Being that some people only get by in life as sexual providers and would do far worse if they could not rent their bodies to the public and the money spent for cops, jails and the like for these people does legal restraint do anything more than cause great harm to the public. When the enemy is at the beach head and one needs tanks and guns and troops just how does spending money fighting porn and hooking count for anything if you can't afford a winning military?

  31. New English by Khashishi · · Score: 2

    The English language has allowed people to voice hate speech and conspire to conduct terror. But worry not, the truth ministry is working on New English which will rectify these shortcomings.

  32. White people ruin everything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well their article clearly shows that not as many people search that as people searching "White people ruin everything", and yet you are offended on behalf of black people. shut the fuck up.

  33. Maybe they DID block 90% of such phrases by raymorris · · Score: 1

    > Google could easily build a filter that could stop 90% or more of these phrases. They will never stop 100%, but they could easily do way better.

    If we made a list of objectionable phrases, we may find that Google DID block 90% of them. Without checking, I can't agree with "they could do way better" - we don't know how well they did. We only know that somebody was able to come up with a few phrases that weren't blocked.

    > But should they? Is it really their role be society's ideological and moral gatekeepers?

    That is indeed a very good question. It gets real interesting when you consider the types of racist things Al Sharpton says, or the things many black comedians say.

    1. Re:Maybe they DID block 90% of such phrases by Mr+D+from+63 · · Score: 1

      > Google could easily build a filter that could stop 90% or more of these phrases. They will never stop 100%, but they could easily do way better.

      If we made a list of objectionable phrases, we may find that Google DID block 90% of them. Without checking, I can't agree with "they could do way better" - we don't know how well they did. We only know that somebody was able to come up with a few phrases that weren't blocked.

      > But should they? Is it really their role be society's ideological and moral gatekeepers?

      That is indeed a very good question. It gets real interesting when you consider the types of racist things Al Sharpton says, or the things many black comedians say.

      If they did block all those phrases, then you would not be able to google this slashdot discussion.

  34. Gamergate much? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So we've had two stories pushing the same agenda in a matter of days. Gee, I wonder if there is some sort of liberal conspiracy to push an SJW agenda...

    Then again, the SJW's are pawns of Google and Facebook, so maybe this is an example of the left eating itself.

  35. automatically discarded by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    if anyone sees "buzzfeed" they should immediately vomit.

  36. This discussion is about ad targeting by raymorris · · Score: 1

    This discussion is about how people can target their ads, not about totally removing a site from Google's index, or indeed removing it from the web completely.

    Suppose you are selling unique cases for Raspberry Pi. You wouldn't want to show that ad to just anybody and everybody at random, that would be wasteful. Instead, you'd want to advertise Pi cases to people who search for "Raspberry Pi", "Pi case", "Pi model B", etc.

    When you advertise through Google, you can show your ads to likely buyers by selecting phrases they search for. The author of the article set his ass to run when people search for "Jewish parasite". Google'sâ server let him type that in and run ads when people search for that.

  37. Typical hysteric idiotism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So there is a way to _target_ people who search with various words? Why wouldn't we want to target people who search hate groups?

    The companies who could use the service could be setting traps for the racists and now Google is protecting racists by denying the service. What the fuck?

  38. This whole discussion, moderation, and becoming by SacredNaCl · · Score: 0

    This whole discussion and the way its being moderated are severely turning me against continuing to use Slashdot. I've been a long time, probably 12-13 years on this account, and I don't even know when I registered the first one. I think we were on Suse 7.1 or so back then, which I actually bought the DVD + CD set for. I remember when this was a free place to discuss ideas, ideals, and even bring the occasional website crawling to its knees from the flood of traffic. Those were good times. Since about 2015 though, its drifted rapidly into this land of there can only be one right idea or ideal. SJWism has taken hold; even if there are still a large number who despite it, especially when stating that could cost them their employment. It doesn't matter if its a discussion about socks or a hurricane, people will find some way to make it political, and bring the worst of those elements into it.

    There was a time when we elevated discussions, and moderators sought to. We could laugh at trolls, and simply disagree without the crud I see in so many threads now and use some of that to bring ideas to the table. We used to believe in freedom and pretty much in free speech. I'm sorry to see that era dying, but I cannot ignore that either. The end result wont elevate discussions. It wont draw new users in, and it will certainly push out long time users.

    --
    Freedom is merely privilege extended unless enjoyed by one and all.
  39. Prejudice is not always a mistake, here's why : by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Most of you don't have the balls to say what needs to be said, so I will say it for you.

    Prejudice is not always a good thing, and it is often a bad thing, but only a fool thinks it is always inaccurate.

    The only time I was ever mugged, I was mugged by four black "youths" who beat me up for no other reason than that they felt like it. I had not looked at these people nor had I said one word to them, before they attacked. Do you think I keep my distance when I see a group of black youths approaching me on the street after that experience ? Only a fool doesn't learn from experience. The lesson is that while not all back people are muggers, some of them most certainly are, and along with that, as a white person minding my own business, I am MUCH more likely to become the victim of violent crime which is perpetrated by blacks. Does this mean I hate all blacks ? No. But it means that unless I know and trust them, I will make sure I keep an eye on them until their intentions are clear. You see, I don't intend to allow myself to be mugged again.

    I live in a university town in the southeastern US. Who do you think murdered the last two white people who were murdered in this so-called peaceful quite little town ? Black youths committed the murders. Does this mean all black people are bad ? No. But it DOES mean that only a fool doesn't take precautions when walking around town, more especially after dark. Prejudice can in such situations keep you ALIVE. And that means prejudice is a valuable tool when used correctly.

    I can already hear you fools who will claim that all blacks are good kind decent people. My reply to you is : you're a naive idiot who has not had much experience in the real world, and your opinion means nothing to me.

    In the real world, there are bad people. And when you cannot possibly know what every person you pass near is going to do or not do, it is intelligent to take precautions in certain situations. Yes, that is prejudice. If you think it's wrong, you will change your mind after you get mugged, I promise you that.