By: Rachel Liao
On June 17, 2022, in the state of Washington, several people protested for Google to fix its ‘fake clinic’ results from abortion searches. The protestors gathered with the hopes of decreasing the number of situations in which women are sent to fake abortion clinics, otherwise called “crisis pregnancy centers.”
Initially, lawmakers urged Google to fix this issue. The request was sent via a letter addressed to Google’s CEO, from 20 Democratic members of congress, Independent Senator Bernie Sanders (Vt.) and the signatures of Senator Mark Warner and Representative Elissa Slotkin were included in this appeal. This legal action couldn’t have been filed without extensive background research on Google’s operation.
Research found that 11% of the results for the search of an abortion clinic in several states were opposers of abortion. 37% also regarded Google Maps queries. Lastly, 28% of Google ads included antiabortion clinics.
Moreover, what further increases the risk are the 13 states that banned abortion the moment Roe V. Wade was overturned, along with five possible others.
“Google should not be displaying anti-abortion fake clinics or crisis pregnancy centers,” the lawmakers noted. “If Google must continue showing these misleading results…the results should, at the very least, be appropriately labeled.”
Despite this argument, Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet, said, “We’re always looking at ways to improve our results to help people find what they’re looking for, or understand if what they’re looking for may not be available.”
Imran Ahmed, the CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), has also mentioned that misinformation may be a critical situation for the international community, given Google’s global reach. They, in fact, own more than 90% of the global market share, according to the German consumer data analysis company, Statista.
As a result, the determination of relevancy of the information from Google is essential. The company itself states that it’s a public-facing guide on the search engine.
However, from this unfortunate situation, their accuracy may come in doubt to many.
“When Google screws up, it can have an enormous impact on the whole word,” stated Ahmed.
With this misinformation effecting the personal health of ordinary people, Ahmed claims that it is necessary for large technology platforms to act well and responsibly, and for policymakers to ensure everything is stable.
Google, which did not respond to the letter immediately, had other issues to deal with. Yet, they still regarded this as a big concern that needed to be fixed as soon as possible.
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