Google Changing Search Engine to Combat ‘Fake News’ and ‘Hate Speech’

Google is tweaking their search engine in a new effort to combat “fake news” and “hate speech.”

“Today, in a world where tens of thousands of pages are coming online every minute of every day, there are new ways that people try to game the system,” proclaimed Ben Gomes, vice president of engineering, in a post on Google’s official blog. “The most high profile of these issues is the phenomenon of ‘fake news,’ where content on the web has contributed to the spread of blatantly misleading, low quality, offensive or downright false information.”

“We’re taking the next step toward continuing to surface more high-quality content from the web,” Gomes continued, adding, “This includes improvements in Search ranking, easier ways for people to provide direct feedback, and greater transparency around how Search works.”

These new changes to Google’s signature search engine will include the ability for users to flag and report “inappropriate” search autocomplete predictions. Users will be able to report autocomplete suggestions as either “hateful,” “sexually explicit,” “violent or includes dangerous and harmful activity,” or “other.”

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