Google search results promote extremists
Ex-terror officer brands website ‘disgrace’ for placing hate preacher top of ‘Muslim spokesman’ list
THE former police chief in charge of counter-terrorism has branded Google a disgrace for ranking Anjem Choudary as the first result for the search term “British Muslim spokesman”.
Sir Mark Rowley accused the internet company of ignoring his pleas – first made six months ago – over the prominent ranking of Choudary, a hate preacher jailed for a terror offence.
A Daily Telegraph investigation highlights a series of concerns over the way Google directs users to inflammatory and distressing content in response to innocuous search terms. When The Telegraph typed in “Auschwitz stories”, Google’s algorithm recommended the website of David Irving, Britain’s most notorious Holocaust denier.
A search for “British hero” in Google’s video channel produced tributes to Tommy Robinson, the far-right leader, in the top three rankings.
Sir Mark, the former Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner in charge of UK counter-terrorism policing, said yesterday: “They [the tech companies] are using algorithms designed to push us towards contentious material because that feeds their bottom line in terms of revenue through advertising.
“The contentious is often the extremist and so they are pushing readers to extremist material. If you google ‘British Muslim spokesman’ you get Anjem Choudary. That is a disgrace.”
Choudary was released from prison in October, having served half of a fiveand-a-half-year sentence for “inviting” support for terrorist groups such as Isil. Sir Mark, who was the policing lead overseeing Choudary’s prosecution, said the extremist remained “genuinely dangerous” and needed to be watched “very, very carefully” by the police.
Choudary, 51, who ran the banned terrorist group al-muhajiroun, has been linked to at least 15 terror plots over the past 20 years.
In his interview with the BBC yesterday, Sir Mark said that although tech companies had made some progress combating the spread of extremism, it was “completely insufficient” considering the scale of the problem. He said the New Zealand shootings and Sri Lanka bomb attacks highlighted new ways in which the “seeds of extremist propaganda are scattered to the winds of the internet”.
“Nobody, not even the best experts, would have predicted those as two big attacks this year,” said Sir Mark. “So we have to say what is happening differently in Right-wing and Islamist terrorism, in terms of the way it is propagating across the world.”
Google is the world’s dominant internet search engine company and also owns the video platform business Youtube.
Mark Gardner, a spokesman for the Community Security Trust, a charity which combats anti-semitism, said it was astonishing that Google was directing readers to David Irving’s website when trying to search for genuine information.
“It is obviously disgraceful that somebody seeking information about the Holocaust would be directed to David Irving,” said Mr Gardner, adding: “It is yet another example of how internet search engines are facilitating the spread of what should be extremist
‘Contentious material… feeds their bottom line in terms of revenue through advertising’
ideas into the mainstream space.” Google can remove websites completely from its search results, but tends not to do so unless asked to by a government or court.
The company does “de-rank” websites that it deems to have breached its rules, making them show up lower in search results.
Google said one reason Choudary appeared so high in the search was due to the link being to his Wikipedia page, which its algorithms consider a credible source.
A spokesman said: “Our goal is to provide people with access to relevant information from the most reliable sources available, not content that is blatantly misleading, low quality, or offensive.”
The findings come as the Government is consulting on plans to create a new UK regulator to hold tech giants to account. Under the proposals, online companies will be placed under a legal duty of care to protect users from harmful content. Breaches could result in fines running into the billions or even prosecution of senior company executives.