Great Google Exodus of 2017
Great Google Exodus of 2017
The Great Google Exodus of 2017 refers to the phenomena of people changing their default Search Engine from Google to DuckDuckGo, Bing, Yahoo, or another competitor. People who's political views are considered centrist and right of center having been discussing in online forums such as Reddit and 4chan leaving the search engine due to perceived left-wing bias. News outlets such as The Guardian have disputed this claim, saying that instead that Google's search algorithm has a right-wing bias.
Causes
Search Biases
A picture showing Google Search bias towards African Americans for the search term 'American Inventors'
Inventores Americanos search
Typing the query 'american inventors' gives a result set almost entirely of African Americans. The same applies to the queries 'american scientists' (as of August 2017).
In November 2016, the Wall Street Journal published an article citing a study that found that Google search results tend to be liberal.
An article in The Guardian from December 2016 disputes this claim saying that Google's search algorithm autocompletes search phrases with conspiracy theories and fake news. The article accuses the Alt right of manipulating search results.
In July of 2017, the European Union fined Google 2.7 billion euros due to search manipulation. The court found that small businesses were unfairly being hidden from search results.
James Damore Incident
Damore as Martin Luther with the 95 theses
On August 4th, 2017 James Damore, a (former) Google employee, internally circulated a document titled "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber. He argued that Google is heavily focusing on diversity efforts in lieu of merit, and more controversially, that the gender gap in the tech industry can be attributed to biological differences between men and women. Damore also complained that Google employees with centrist and right-wing viewpoints are heavily suppressed and must keep their opinions private in order to avoid being fired. Damore himself stated that many fellow employees privately agreed with the manifesto, but will choose to remain silent.
Social Media Response
Members on Reddit's the_donald forum have already started to move.
On August 8th, Reddit user DeltaLeash uploaded a photo to /r/The Donald that offered a four step guide for people wanting to change their default search engine from Google to DuckDuckGo. The thread has been upvoted over 5,000 times. 4chan threads have been advocating for the use of AdNauseam which blocks Google Ads as well as silently clicks on them which intern dilutes their base and credibility, reducing conversion rates. An article cites the hashtag #BoycottGoogle gaining momentum among conservative users on Twitter.
YouTube Censorship
Google announced a new policy for their video platform YouTube that would prevent many users from obtaining advertising revenue. Controversial videos about Religion were going to be flagged and hidden from the "Suggested Videos" section. Additionally, these flagged videos would not permit commenting or liking. YouTubers like Mark Dice saw this as a direct threat to his following of over 1,000,000.
See Also
Censorship by Google