By: Joshua Wang
Last Friday, twenty Democratic members of congress and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) sent a letter to Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, asking them to fix a search accuracy issue regarding abortion-related search queries.
This comes after a recent leak of a U.S. Supreme Court decision draft expected later this month, which could possibly overrule the right to an abortion established in Roe v. Wade.
Lawmakers cite a recent report conducted by the CCDH, or Center for Countering Digital Hate, which found that in states with abortion “trigger laws” – laws that would effectively ban abortions if Roe v. Wade were ever overturned – 11% of Google search results for abortion services directed users to nonmedicinal facilities that did not provide abortions. Moreover, on Google Maps, the CCDH found that 37% of search results for abortion-related queries were for fake anti-abortion clinics.
“Directing women toward fake clinics that traffic in misinformation and don’t provide comprehensive health services is dangerous to women’s health and undermines the integrity of Google’s search results,” Democratic lawmakers wrote in the letter spearheaded by Sen. Mark R. Warner (Va.) and Rep. Elissa Slotkin (Mich.).
The CCDH report also found that 28% of Google advertisements that were displayed at the top of abortion-related queries were for anti-abortion clinics, which lawmakers note completely contradicts their previous statements in 2014, where Google pledged to remove ads for some “crisis pregnancy centers” that violated the company’s policy regarding deceptive advertising and misinformation.
The legislators requested Google to detail the steps it will take to limit the appearance of anti-abortion fake clinics and malicious misinformation in Google search results, Google Ads, and Google Maps, and ensuring users receive accurate information when they search for health care services on Google Search and Google Maps, especially in regards to abortion-related search queries. They also requested Google provide user-friendly disclaimers in their advertisements clearly outlining the legitimacy of the medical facility and indicating if it does or does not provide abortions.
As of now, Google has yet to respond to the lawmaker’s letter.
Source: https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1655667897911x455898890068321600/Google%20results%20for%20abortion%20clinics%20are%20suggesting%20%27fake%20clinics%27%20before%20SCOTUS%20ruling%2C%20lawmakers%20say%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf