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Activists manipulating Google so Trump photos come up when you search for 'idiot'
The Hill ^ | 07/19/18 | John Bowden

Posted on 07/19/2018 12:00:35 PM PDT by yesthatjallen

Online activists angry with President Trump's policies have manipulated Google Images search results, causing images of Trump's face to appear as the top search results for the term "idiot."

The Guardian first reported the campaign Thursday, which appeared to begin on Reddit after an initial campaign aimed to get the hit Green Day song "American Idiot" to the top of the British music charts during Trump's visit to the U.K. last week.

Several posts on Reddit with tens of thousands of upvotes (bots?) could be found promoting the news stories or the general campaign to manipulate the search results. Google Images search results are gathered and presented in order of prominence so high-popularity posts on Reddit, one of the internet's most popular sites, often appear at the top of Google searches.

The Guardian reports that Google executives take very little action to remedy offensive search results that are caused by online activism campaigns, including in 2004 when an offensive caricature began appearing under Google searches for the word "Jew."

Instead, the company has opted to explain the search results through advertisements that appear to users on the site.

“A site’s ranking in Google’s search results relies heavily on computer algorithms using thousands of factors to calculate a page’s relevance to a given query,” the company explained in 2004. “Sometimes subtleties of language cause anomalies to appear that cannot be predicted.”

The tactic was favored by right-leaning members of the Reddit community during the 2016 election, who frequently used popular posts on the infamous pro-Trump r/The_Donald subreddit to alter Google results to display former President Bill Clinton's face under results for the term "rapist." Those images no longer appear, as the company's algorithm changes results regularly.

Other past Google campaigns from online activists have targeted companies such as Comcast over opposition to net neutrality, as well as other politicians and companies.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: google; trump
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I wonder how many of these activists work for Google and manipulate algorithms.
1 posted on 07/19/2018 12:00:35 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
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To: yesthatjallen

What kind of idiot googles idiot?


2 posted on 07/19/2018 12:03:19 PM PDT by vmivol00 (I won't be reconstructed.)
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To: yesthatjallen

Weren’t there some pretty stiff laws passed to punish people who screwed around with internet entities like this?

How about some prosecutions and prison terms?

These people aren’t just hurting Trump. They are affecting the well being of the nation.

The Left can either start accepting that Trump is President, or deal with an elevating amount to legal push-back.


3 posted on 07/19/2018 12:03:21 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (01/26/18 DJIA 30 stocks $26,616.71 48.794% > open 11/07/16 215.71 from 50% increase 1.2183 yrs)
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To: yesthatjallen

Activists?

Is that what we’re calling adult adolescents now?............


4 posted on 07/19/2018 12:03:54 PM PDT by Red Badger (July 2018 - the month the world discovered the TRUTH......Q Anon)
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To: vmivol00

Just don’t type “Google” into Google, or else you’ll break the Internet.


5 posted on 07/19/2018 12:04:09 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: vmivol00

6 posted on 07/19/2018 12:06:15 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: yesthatjallen

“activists” = SUBVERSIVES.


7 posted on 07/19/2018 12:07:28 PM PDT by Howie66 ("...Against All Enemies, Foreign and Democrat.....")
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To: yesthatjallen

8 posted on 07/19/2018 12:09:56 PM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://youtu.be/wH-pk2vZGw2M)
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To: yesthatjallen

9 posted on 07/19/2018 12:10:16 PM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://youtu.be/wH-pk2vZGw2M)
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To: vmivol00

>>What kind of idiot googles idiot?<<

Idiots.

People busy writing bots (which any 12-YO can do) when the rest of us are working for a living.


10 posted on 07/19/2018 12:10:49 PM PDT by freedumb2003 ("please pass the winnamins" (/Principled on 6/27/2018))
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To: All

Great, so let’s counter. I’ll take that photo of Obama eating a hot dog in front of Michelle and tie it to the search term “teasing your husband”.


11 posted on 07/19/2018 12:11:13 PM PDT by InsidiousMongo
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To: InsidiousMongo

Let’s do “low IQ” with Maxine...


12 posted on 07/19/2018 12:21:12 PM PDT by GOPJ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-s1_nfs7f4 STOP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-IsingvI_I)
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To: yesthatjallen

Google “low IQ” and you’ll see a picture of Maxine on the first page.


13 posted on 07/19/2018 12:22:36 PM PDT by GOPJ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-s1_nfs7f4 STOP https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-IsingvI_I)
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To: yesthatjallen

I’m fine with liberals using their time to do meaningless things.


14 posted on 07/19/2018 12:25:04 PM PDT by SaxxonWoods (Hmmm)
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To: yesthatjallen

Wow so cool just like in 4th grade!


15 posted on 07/19/2018 12:31:13 PM PDT by 48th SPS Crusader (I am an American. Not a Republican or a Democrat)
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To: yesthatjallen

Should be Barry O’bummers pic that comes up. Wish I knew how to “manipulate” that stuff.


16 posted on 07/19/2018 12:35:54 PM PDT by Carriage Hill (Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.)
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To: yesthatjallen

google doesn’t mind.
At one time, google-imagining
black males
brought up pictures of black males in police lineups.
No more. google changed their programs and databases to change the results.


17 posted on 07/19/2018 12:36:32 PM PDT by I want the USA back (Liberalism, like insanity, is the denial of reality.)
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To: I want the USA back

F*ck!
goggle-imaging
white males
gives you strange weird creeps, “all white males are evil”, a bunch of fairies, and mark zuckerberg (excuse the redundancy.)


18 posted on 07/19/2018 12:39:10 PM PDT by I want the USA back (Liberalism, like insanity, is the denial of reality.)
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To: yesthatjallen

Google image search side of beef in quotes.


19 posted on 07/19/2018 12:47:29 PM PDT by Rebelbase ( Tagline disabled.)
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To: Red Badger

I want republicans to wallop the democrats in November and I want president Trump to win a second term in 2020. Nothing will make these morons cry more then those two things. If they become more violent it will be their mistake.


20 posted on 07/19/2018 12:52:25 PM PDT by Peeps47 (Democrats are as corrupt as they are incompetent)
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