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

Posted by msmash on from the fault-in-our-stars dept.

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.

7 of 139 comments (clear)

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

    Deja vu, except for the company name.

    1. 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?

  2. 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 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.

    2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.