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Safari's 'Siri Suggested' Search Results Highlighted Conspiracy Theories, Fake News (buzzfeednews.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BuzzFeed News: Apple's Safari, one of the internet's most popular web browsers, has been surfacing debunked conspiracies, shock videos, and false information via its "Siri Suggested Websites" feature. Such results raise questions about the company's ability to monitor for low-quality information, and provide another example of the problems platforms run into when relying on algorithms to police the internet. As of yesterday, if you typed "Pizzagate" into Apple's Safari, the browser's "Siri Suggested Website" prominently offered users a link to a YouTube video with the title "PIZZAGATE, BIGGEST SCANDAL EVER!!!" by conspiracy theorist David Seaman (the video doesn't play, since Seaman's channel was taken down for violating YouTube's terms of service). The search results appeared on multiple versions of Safari. Apple removed all examples of the questionable Siri Suggested sites provided to it by BuzzFeed News.
[W]hen BuzzFeed News entered incomplete search terms that might suggest contentious or conspiratorial topics (as shown below), the search algorithms directed us toward low-quality websites, message boards, or YouTube conspiracy videos rather than reliable information or debunks about those topics. Meanwhile, Google does not feature such unreliable pages in its top search results. Those suggested results matter since Safari is one of the internet's most popular web browsers -- some estimates suggest it has captured over 10% of the browser market share. The poor suggestions may be a result of a "data void," which is "what happens when a term doesn't have 'natural informative results' and manipulators seize upon it," reports BuzzFeed. "Many of the sites surfaced by the Siri Suggested feature came from conspiracy or junk sites hastily assembled to fill that void."
In a statement, Apple said: "Siri Suggested Websites come from content on the web and we provide curation to help avoid inappropriate sites. We also remove any inappropriate suggestions whenever we become aware of them, as we have with these. We will continue to work to provide high-quality results and users can email results they feel are inappropriate to applebot@apple.com."
[W]hen BuzzFeed News entered incomplete search terms that might suggest contentious or conspiratorial topics (as shown below), the search algorithms directed us toward low-quality websites, message boards, or YouTube conspiracy videos rather than reliable information or debunks about those topics. Meanwhile, Google does not feature such unreliable pages in its top search results. Those suggested results matter since Safari is one of the internet's most popular web browsers -- some estimates suggest it has captured over 10% of the browser market share. The poor suggestions may be a result of a "data void," which is "what happens when a term doesn't have 'natural informative results' and manipulators seize upon it," reports BuzzFeed. "Many of the sites surfaced by the Siri Suggested feature came from conspiracy or junk sites hastily assembled to fill that void."
In a statement, Apple said: "Siri Suggested Websites come from content on the web and we provide curation to help avoid inappropriate sites. We also remove any inappropriate suggestions whenever we become aware of them, as we have with these. We will continue to work to provide high-quality results and users can email results they feel are inappropriate to applebot@apple.com."
3.38% of browser market share doesn't seem like "one of the internet's most popular web browser"...
Really?
Apple provides crap via Siri?
Really?
And this is a surprise?
Good Lord - Dead Steve's vision has been fully achieved. Reality distortion field is in full effect these days.
David Seaman is 100% more credible than buzzfeed news, and he's an out and out cryptocoin conman.
You ask for trash topics and it delivers. All this nonsense of fake news is about using people who are to stupid to tell facts from fictions to usher in a fascist nanny state.
Takes you to CNN for a large dose of Fake News.
Why it's Apple's job or any other company's job to monitor links to content outside their control?
Let ***ME*** decide if the links are valuable or not.
If I type "Pizzagate" it's because I want to find information about that topic (both against and for the conspiracy).
Logically Safari (and Bing and Google) should show me what's available, rather than make it invisible.
I want to see ALL the possible websites, not just the ones Apple of Microsoft or Google thinks is "safe" for my consumption.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
List of conspiracies not listed by buzzfeed:
There are more than two genders.
Gun ownership rate and overall crime don't have an inverse correlation.
Men are not more likely to be assaulted or raped than women.
White people aren't more likely to be shot by police than black people.
Women aren't more likely to be domestic abusers and aren't less likely to be punished.
Buzfeed news isn't a blog with a political agenda.
Nghia Hoang Pho wasn't just sentenced to 5.5 years for the same crime the FBI found evidence of 110 instances that Hillary Clinton committed.
I'd like Safari to start censoring me from BuzzFeed articles...
All the techies and gurus and talking heads are wringing their hands about runaway AI in weapons and the implications of them spinning out of control but are full speed ahead on board with reasons why we should create this overarching AI Deity to monitor and control speech across entire nations and the planet from on high. I mean, technology that could be repurposed to detect, censor, and extract data about dissidents from any form of expression instantaneously on global scales being somewhere in the neighborhood of concern as robotic guns is not THAT crazy a notion right?
Siri has conservatives covered for a search tool that caters to their needs.
anti-fact Republicans hate these concepts
Right.
Try posting some facts somewhere on the Internet. For example, blacks are only 13% of the population but commit more than 50% of all murders and 55% of all robberies.
Try posting that somewhere and see how fast you get shut down by liberals.
When did (some) westerners turn into wilting violets? Do they think Batboy is a real person every time they buy groceries and see a tabloid at checkout? If these assholes had been pushing this censorship crap in 2002, anyone questioning the march to invade Iraq would have been slandered as a conspiracy theorist and censored*.
Then there's the fact that the people calling for said censorship can easily be hoist on their own petard, as happened to ThinkProgress after they cheered for Alex Jones being deplatformed. The Weekly Standard picked a nit with an article they wrote on Trump's nominee for SCOTUS, and so FFB throttled them. Because FFB trusted a science-denying, Iraq war loving Bill Kristol rag to do "fact checking".
*To those who say it's not censorship if the government isn't involved, I'll refer you to the Congressional hearings where senators demanding big tech companies do something about "fake news", and the fact that FFB is relying on the Atlantic Council to police their platform - an organization that receives direct funding from the US military.
But then who will protect us when "An anonymous reader quotes a report from BuzzFeed News"?
Apple users voted Trump in office instead of the alternatives, and Siri made them do it! /playful witticism
Move along goyim, worldwide financials are none of your business. We just need a couple more kamakazi armed forces to finish off the the last of the middle east countries we haven't blown apart, once thats complete, we can build a nice bridge directly into europe for all the refugees. Our bolshevik plan is almost complete.
That may be mostly true, but it's not due to the racist reasons you are implying. If you look at desparately poor region with little to no chance of finding jobs for young adult males, then the crime rates in those regions will go up. The demographics of those regions have more blacks than whites in this country. So blame the crime rate on poverty rather than race. The only people who repeat that silly stat of yours are white nationalists, and if you're trusting what they tell you then you need to get more educated.
Also note that in the US, for the exact same crime blacks have a higher conviction rate than whites and will get a longer sentence on average. For drug crimes it's absurdly biased against blacks whereas whites will get only a slap on the wrist (ie, inexpensive crack cocaine gets a long sentence whereas upper class cocaine gets you community service).
Courageous courage courageously. COURAGE
Is the search provider providing bullshit results because they didn't like the bullshit generated by others.
Apple stuff sure is nice to look at and thatâ(TM)s about where the quality ends these days. I donâ(TM)t know what happened to the magic and brilliance Apple once had. But clearly it has lost its mojo
Only *Siri suggestions* are affected, which is entirely Apple's purview. You will still get all the expected search results from the engine of your choice.
And when Trump Jr posted that 99% of black people cause black murders from a non existent source, that actually needs to be filtered lest people latch on to it and think it's true
That may be mostly true
Indeed!
but it's not due to the racist reasons you are implying.
Zero racist reasons were implied. Therefore the racist implications are in your own head. You therefore, are the racist. There is no other truth here.
"His name was James Damore."
So human trafficking is a myth too? I cannot wait to see the spin once we see the trials take place.
Siri, how to secure my hosts file?
James Comey, then head of the FBI, declared that she's guilty, but that "no reasonable prosecutor" would pursue her. The FBI is blatantly corrupt and destroys evidence. Do not spread lies.
it's not due to the racist reasons you are implying.
Where was the racism in that post?
Facts like; as a white American, you are between 5 and 6 times more likely to be murdered by a white murderer than a black one?
Siri delivers accurate results. How original, and how dangerous.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Because impoverished white people simply don't exist, do they? You're wearing out your race card. It's about culture and behavior, not race.
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
Zero racist reasons were implied. Therefore the racist implications are in your own head. You therefore, are the racist. There is no other truth here.
Stating related facts can be misleading to the point of racism. For instance you are posting on slashdot. Many trolling posters on slashdot live in their mom's basement. Many posters on slashdot are IT folks. Many IT folks are overweight. Some IT workers are unkempt slobs as they are introverts and like working alone in dark spaces where they don't have to deal with social situations.
The implication is that you are a trolling overweight introverted anti-social slob.
Now, none of things may be true of you, and in fact several are not even true in general. But the problem is the appearance of a stereotype that people readily identify with and then tar the rest of the categorized population. After all we all know the wonderful BOFH right?
Finally, to counter your statement, per the GPs assumed intended direction if you replace black with poor you'll come up with roughly equivalently true statements. Since black refers to race and making negative statements based on race is considered racism... qed.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
+1 Funny
Complete stupidity. Who writes this shit. I don't even know any Mac users who use that POS.
Safari? That's that thing you use to download a real browser, just like Edge on Windows.
He's using cherry picked numbers to imply black people are bad.
That's the racism, you fucking inbred.
That was a funny one, "Edge on Windows".
I take it you never viewed John Podesta's artwork within his home...
My guess would be that very few slashdotters have ever been in John Podesta's home, so, as a matter of mere probability, I think you can take that as a given.