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| Forum > Liberatchik > Search Neutrality, Google, and The Texas Textbook Wars |
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| Search Neutrality, Google, and The Texas Textbook Wars | ||
| Topic posted by MediaCritic on March 17, 2010 at 10:32 AM | ||
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The conflict over whether Google is “search neutral” in the why it ranks material it presents to users is reminiscent of the battle over text book content now raging in Texas. In that state, conservatives and liberals argue about what should appear in history texts used by students in Texas (and by extension, around the country). Conservatives want material about the role of religion in our nation’s founding; they also want an emphasis on the Constitution and American “exceptionalism.”
In contrast, liberals want to downplay religion’s part in the forming of our Republic. And they want to highlight the role of minorities, and women. Essentially, they want to present America as just another nation, one on a list between Afghanistan and Zimbabwe.
So, what does the Texas Text Book War have to do with Google? In Texas as in Silicon Valley’s Google, there’s a conflict about who should control what people learn.
If (and it’s a big “if”), Google manipulates what we find when we search some term – say, “Islam” or “Obama” – then it truly does influence what’s in our heads. If it skews the material it presents – as many people charge – then it controls what we know.
Similarily, if Texas students’ textbooks tell them the Judeo-Christian tradition is important in the forming of America, then that’s what they know about their country. In contrast, if textooks hammer in the concept of “separation of church and state,” then they’ll know something very different.
What Google’s involved is is profoundly important. If they’re “cooking the links,” then we need to KNOW that also. Of course, Google hides its actions under the smokesreen of scientific mumbo-jumbo about “algorithms,” complex math formulas.
We shouldn’t insist that Google achieve perfection – total seach neutrality – in the links it provides. But we should demand to know – that word again! – exactly how it goes about deciding what goes into our minds – and what doesn’t.
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