Google has been struggling with implications of “liberal bias” for quite some time now. Recently, a Christian group in London, called simply the “Christian Institute,” was discussing with Google an ad that they wanted to put on the site. The ad would provide a link to a webpage discussing conservative viewpoints and news about abortion. The ad was not described in great detail, but it was said that it was a simple link that would show up on the right side of the screen with other ads when a searcher put in the query “abortion.”
Google refused to post this advertisement, on the grounds that their company policy “does not permit the advertisement of websites that contain ‘abortion and religion-related content.” When first reading this article, I agreed with Google’s standpoint, in that I don’t think religions should advertise their beliefs in any way shape or form. That’s a personal decision that advertising seems (to me anyway) to cheapen. However, my thoughts changed somewhat when I read on and found that Google actually does put ads up of a controversial nature, (for instance, an ad for the services of an abortionist) just never conservative ones. In 2005, Google was accused of liberal bias when they turned down a request for ad space made by a conservative website called “Rightmarch.com.”
It seems to me that this problem can only continue…and all media sources have some level of bias. Think about different news shows; there are more liberal or conservative viewpoints discussed on different ones. But when people watch the news they simply ignore whatever news show they don’t care for and only watch the one that correlates with their own personal beliefs. It could be a simplistic viewpoint, but perhaps the conservative groups can find a lovely conservative search engine to advertise with.
Google has been in the news a lot lately. They are being thrown law suits left and right. If I was Google, I would probably start thinking of ways to change the way I do business, look at the consumer compaints and put them into perspecitve to try to make all consumers happy. There are no conservative new sources, maybe some in the middle, but most are left wing. The problem with this article was that Google’s policies are not applied fairly to everyone. The Christian Institute has just as much right to advertise with Google than any other comany or non-profit that wants to advertise. Maybe some people were googling abortion to find this group or because they wanted to know all the negative aspects of abortion.
The Christian Institue has just as much right as any other company or non-profit to advertise with Google. It shouldn’t matter that they do not support abortion. Maybe some people who googled abortion were looking for some negative aspects of abortion or they could have wanted to find the Christian Institue. It seems like Google has had law suits thrown at them left and right. They should probably look at consumer complaints and figure out what they could to better to help curb law suits and help make their consumers happier.