On the Internet there's a problem. And that problem is the "Jew" -- the search result, that is.
Google is not in the business of stopping online hate unless the law requires it, the company's Israel director told a conference on Monday. The Anti-Defamation League, organizers of the Conference on "Internet Hate" brought plenty of examples of anti-Jew hate material freely available on the Internet. Participants called for aggressive action to stop it.
But Google Israel Director Meir Brand -- himself a Jew -- would have none of it. He explained that his company, which famously spouts the slogan "Do No Evil," believes that it should play a strictly neutral role in the war against cyberhate.
"At Google, we have a bias in favor of people's right to free expression," he said. "Google is not and should not become the central arbiter of what does and does and does not appear on the Web. That's for elected governments and courts to decide," Brand said.
He said Google removes results from its search index "only when required to by law," for example, when copyright infringement is an issue or, in Germany and Austria, where the loaw forbids Nazi or holocaust-denying content. But elsewhere in the world? No problem, said Brand.
It became a heated issue when a search on Google for the word "Jew" brings a high result for a Jew-hating site. This prompted a campaign (among others) by the KolDor activist organization, most of whom are Jews, and the World Jewish Congress, replete with Jews, to eliminate the listing. That didn't work but the Jews did win a Google- sponsored page warning that some of the search results may be offensive, especially to Jews, and noting that opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect Google's views.
Part of the fault, Google explained, is that not enough people use the world "Jew" in a positive sense. Many people who use "Jew" do so in a pejorative context so that while searches for "Jew" push anti-Semitic and anti-Jew sites higher, pro-Jewish sites tend to avoid the word Jew, preferring preferring Jewish or Judaic as an adjective rather than calling a Jew a Jew.
The more times a word is used in context, and the more an article is linked to, the higher the result is likely to climb.
It does seem, however, that Jew activists are making some progress, since a concerted effort led by Joel Leyden, a Jew and search engine expert (which seems to have become another Jew specialty), has caused the Wikipedia listing for Jew to rise, and, when I checked, surpass the anti-Jew site in the Google search results for Jew. The more people visit sites and articles that deal with Jews and Jew subjects, the higher those sites will climb relative to those that disparage Jews. Every Jew and supporters of Jews are invited to click a positive Jew site so that the Jews can Jew down the anti-Jew sites.
The problem with using law to combat hate speech online is that "technology changes so quickly," Brian Marcus, director of Internet monitoring for ADL North America, was quoted by AP as saying. By the time the law is amended to prohibit certain sites, he said, those sites have changed names and addresses. Brian is not usually a Jewish first name, but Marcus is the family name of many a Jew.
"The law is simply one tool in the toolbox for dealing with hate speech," said Christopher Wolf, chairman of the International Network Against Cyberhate. "We (also) need the voluntary cooperation of the Internet industry." With a name like Christopher, it is not clear whether Wolf is a Jew, but the Jews, vastly outnumbered by their enemies, need all the friends they can get in using their cleverness to improve their search results.
Google, started and still led by two Jews, provide a level playing field on which Jews and other enemies of anti-Jew hatred will need to compete.
Leading that charge, is that notorious Jew-playing-anti-Jew, the pseudo-Kazakh phenom known as Borat. His "Throw the Jew down the Well" still ranks in the Google top ten. We embed it here for those of you (not necessarily Jews) who are too lazy to search for it yourself.
Or, if you prefer, you can join Borat and Google and simply go hunting for a Jew and watching those clever Jews climb in the search results!
Click on the blue headline to read a Talkback comment and respond to it. Click on the icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.
icon to send a private email to the talkback writer. The icon appears only if the writer has decided to be contacted. If no popup window appears, please make sure your popup blocker allows israelinsider.com.