In the “Knowledge Panel” that provides quick access to information at the top of a Google search, the tech giant recently listed “Nazism” as part of the ideology of the California Republican Party.
The move comes less than a week before the California primary.
“Nazism” was hyperlinked on the search result and sent users to another page that listed “Nazism” alongside other ideologies like “Conservatism,” “Market liberalism,” “Fiscal conservatism,” and “Green conservatism.”
Google users noticed the listing Thursday morning and by Friday it had apparently been removed. Google, in a statement, blamed the “Nazism” tag on Wikipedia, calling it “vandalism.”
“We have systems in place that catch vandalism before it impacts search results, but occasionally errors get through, and that’s what happened here,” Google said in a statement. “This would have been fixed systematically once we processed the removal from Wikipedia, but when we noticed the vandalism we worked quickly to accelerate this process to remove the erroneous information.”
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Still, voters looking to get information about the California GOP were shown it was closely aligned with “Nazism,” according to the world’s largest and most trusted technology company.
Republicans were quick to notice and condemn Google. California party executive director Cynthia Bryant said in a statement that Google and Wikipedia should take more ownership of content published on their sites.
U.S. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, whose district is in central California, call the search result a “disgrace.”
“Sadly, this is just the latest incident in a disturbing trend to slander conservatives. These damaging actions must be held to account,” he said in a tweet.
CEO of YouTube, which is owned by Google, Susan Wojcicki recently said YouTube would begin to rely on Wikipedia entries to create a “companion unit” that will be shown beside “conspiracy theory” videos.
Tuesday’s primary elections will determine Representatives and the potential next governor of the nation’s most populous state.
Source: dangerous
