Google employees have discussed cracking down on conservative political commentators Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro and Dennis Prager, referring to them as “Nazis”, watchdog group Project Veritas reports.
Project Veritas, which ignited controversy this week after exposing Google’s alleged plans to prevent a Trump re-election in 2020, claims it has obtained a leaked e-mail from within the company’s “transparency and ethics” team.
BREAKING: LEAKED @Google doc from 'transparency-and-ethics group' calls @benshapiro, @prageru, @jordanbpeterson "nazis using the dogwhistles" and recommends the disabling of the "suggestions" feature. FULL ARTICLE: https://t.co/oIdcykyWTk pic.twitter.com/MyC2cOthue
— James O'Keefe (@JamesOKeefeIII) 25 июня 2019 г.
“…If we understand that PragerU, Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro et al are Nazis using the dog whistles…” says an employee going by the name Liam Hopkins, according to a screenshot of the e-mail.
He then zooms in on a suggestion to ban them from the Google suggest feature that attempts to autocomplete users’ searches as they are typing in the search box.
“I can receive these recommendations regardless of the content of what I’m looking at, and I have recorded thousands of internet users sharing the same experience,” Liam adds.
“I don’t think correctly identifying far-right content is beyond our capabilities. But if it is, why not go with Meredith’s suggestion of disabling the suggestions feature? This could be a significant step in terms of user trust.”
Shapiro was quick to call out YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki. “Do you think your employees should be cavalierly labelling those who militantly hate white supremacy ‘Nazis,’ and then shaping algorithms on the basis of such lies?” he inquired.
Hey, @SusanWojcicki, would love to discuss this with you. Do you think your employees should be cavalierly labeling those who militantly hate white supremacy "Nazis," and then shaping algorithms on the basis of such lies? https://t.co/8zy72ZdWXI
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) 25 июня 2019 г.
Prager, in turn, mocked Google for applying the ‘Nazi’ slur to two Jews who have publicly condemned the Holocaust, for example.
Dennis Prager is a Jew.
— PragerU (@prageru) 25 июня 2019 г.
Ben Shapiro is a Jew.
Both have spoken extensively against anti-Semitism, the Holocaust, Hitler, etc.
Yet a Google employee claims they are Nazis in order to justify suppressing conservative content?
Nice try, @Google. 🤡
While Jordan Peterson has yet to comment on the report – and is very, very likely to roast Google the way he did with Patreon – the company has debunked claims it goes after the political right.
“Google has repeatedly been clear that it works to be a trustworthy source of information, without regard to political viewpoint. In fact, Google has no notion of political ideology in its rankings,” said Jen Gennai, the Google executive caught on a hidden camera talking about plans to prevent “the next Trump situation”.
The tech firm has recently stepped up its efforts to ban content it deems dangerous. Earlier this month, YouTube, the world’s biggest video-sharing site owned by Google, announced plans to snub thousands of videos touting “white supremacy and hate”.
