Holocaust Denial ?

[mikey4444]

There is an interesting piece in the Observer today, about Google.

It said that if you type in " Did the holocaust happen ? " the top answer comes from a Neo-nazi website, so I tried it, and it did !

https://www.stormfront.org/forum/t553062/

In fact, quite a few denial website feature on the first page.

Is it any wonder that the far and ultra-far right appear to be making inroads into our societies these days ?

It would be easy to just point out that most of these website are owned by uneducated and bigoted Americans, but in the age of the Global Village, this is very worrying indeed.

[naomi24]

If the young are ignorant of history, we can hardly blame them. Education of the young is the responsibility of the older generation - the educators.

[whiskeryron]

All countries, religions, beliefs have their own propaganda & slant on things. How easy is it to sort out what is the actual truth about anything in this world ? Which newspaper or tv channel is actually impartial & will give a reader/listener actual undisputed facts ?

[whiskeryron]

Thanks DB

[Khandro]

There's a lot of figures that don't really add up/ like the facts of the 1933 and pre-holocaust census's, but it's best to leave it all alone methinks. It was a dreadful chapter in human history, unspeakable whatever the numbers, and it cannot be denied.

[jim360]

The problem I have with this is simply that you are searching for what you wanted to find in the first place. If you google "incredibly hot illegal animal porn complete with something nasty involving underage kids" I am fairly sure that the first few links would roughly correspond to that, but it doesn't seem to me that Google has anything to do with it directly, displaying a bias or some such.

Same with this. "Did the Holocaust happen?" is a leading question, or a question that begs the answer "no", anyway, so naturally it will lead to 'Holocaust-denying' site primarily. If you simply google "holocaust" then, as if by magic, the first page is filled with links from more reputable sources.So I think this demonstrates abuse of a resource, rather than flaws in the resource itself.

TL;DR learn how to search properly.

[-Talbot-]

Welcome back Khandro

[jim360]

The broader point anyway is that resources like search engines (which are really just massive libraries) ought to be relatively free from bias, or blocking resources on some political grounds. I don't want holocaust denial to be widely-publicised exactly, but on the other hand it is not a crime in this country, at least, to be wrong, or to research the wrong things. Freedom of speech seems to imply the freedom to say something that's "wrong" in that sense.

So no, I don't think that Google should block sites just because we don't like what they say. That risks politicising what's available. Never mind that it doesn't solve the problem anyway. The sites still exist, there are other ways to find them, and all you do is push the thing underground rather than keep it in the open where it can be exposed to criticism, ridicule and rejection openly if appropriate. There's also the more serious problem of -- well, I'm not a fan of the slippery slope argument, but it's still true that it would set a dangerous precedent. What if Google didn't stop with blocking this stuff, and started blocking or censoring sites from its search algorithms based on a wider agenda? No-one should tolerate that, whether or not it supports their own views.

(Criminal activity, of course, is another matter entirely.)

[naomi24]

Mikey says //Can we trust people to be able to work out what is the truth ..... ?//

.... which begs the questions 'Who are we?' .... and more importantly, 'Who watches the watchmen?'

[ToraToraTora]

Mikey; "It said that if you type in " Did the holocaust happen ? " the top answer comes from a Neo-nazi website, so I tried it, and it did ! " - I'm shocked I though the Labour home page would be top!

[raydounahammed]

They've chosen their words carefully. Just "The Holocaust brings up: