Target: Sundar Pichai, Chief Executive Officer of Google, Inc.
Goal: Support further development of the “fact-check” algorithm to help users identify fake news.
Google has expanded its automatic “fact check” tag to be included in search results, as users continue to demand–like in this petition at Forcechange–the upfront identification of misleading and outright untrue information. If Google’s algorithm determines that a search requires a fact check, it will display the following at the top of the results: what the claim is, who claimed it, and the determination a fact-checking organization made about it.
While this is certainly a step in the right direction and indicates that Google is taking its responsibility to its consumers seriously, there are still problems. This “fact-check” tag only activates if the query is phrased a certain way. Simply Googling a question in order to find its answers will not give the user any fact-check information about the corresponding results–the query itself must be framed as a claim. Also, the fact-check bots only scan certain data and research sites in order to draw its conclusions. Sign below to support the fact-checking system as a necessary development and demand that it continue to be expanded and honed.
PETITION LETTER:
Dear CEO Pichai,
I would like to express my support for the initiative that Google has taken by adding a “fact check” tag into its search results. Users rely on Google to find facts and truths, and this shows that your company understands that responsibility.
It is also vital that this system continue to be developed, so that its benefits can be reaped regardless of how a user types a query, and to ensure that all possible vetting resources are included in the “fact-check” insertion. I thank you for your good work and urge you to continue pushing forward.
Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]
Photo Credit: Simon Steinberger
thank you google!
I will not sign this petition and will explain why. I find it very offensive that Google would take it upon itself to decide for all it’s users what is true and what is not true. I am very much into critical thinking, thinking laterally, thinking outside the box, and doing extensive research to find out for myself what the truth about a subject is.
For Google or anyone to say – as soon as someone tries to research a subject – that something is true or not true, is extremely offensive to that person’s right to think for themselves. Google wants us all to be unthinking and uncritical and to believe whatever they say is true.
I think this move by Google is a huge attack on people’s right to think for themselves and to come to their own conclusions about anything they try to research.