Both Business Week and The New York Times recently reported on the autocomplete issue brought up in class on Monday regarding the former first lady of Germany. A rumor that she was formerly a prostitute has resulted in her name being tied to 'escort' or 'prostitute' when a Google user begins to type her name in its search box. She's filed suit for defamation in a German court.
Google has responded in a statement that, "the search queries that you see as part of Autocomplete are a
reflection of the search activity of all web users... These searches are produced by a number of algorithmic
factors including popularity of search terms. Google does not suggest
these terms—all of the queries shown in Autocomplete have been typed
previously by other Google users.”
Yet, there is no mention that the use of search popularity by the autocomplete function may result in a self-fulfilling prophecy. Imagine a user begins to type a search term and its completed by autocomplete. Yet, it wasn't exactly what the user intended. Nonetheless, the user clicks on the autocomplete and is provided with results that may differ slightly than their original intent. Now that same search term is deemed more popular and is likely to remain at the top of the autocomplete results.
In the case of Bettina Wulff, this effect could have unnecessarily accelerated the undesirable search terms that were associated with her name. Its seems to me that Google should assume some responsibility for this accelerating effect. However, it is also interesting to think about the autocomplete function in terms of the right to free speech. I understand how the courts could interpret that impeding the autocomplete function could interfere with free speech. I guess we'll stay tuned and see what the court decides...
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