In a letter sent last Friday, more than a dozen U.S lawmakers signed a letter addressing the concerns about the Google results regarding abortion. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., included a report from a non-profit organization called the Center for Countering Digital Hate in the letter. The CCDH found that 11 percent of Google search results in states with abortion “trigger laws,” led the users to medical facilities that did not provide abortion. The result was the same for 37 percent of Google Map searches.
These ‘fake abortion clinics,’ also called “crisis pregnancy centers” or “pregnancy resource centers,” did not provide options for abortion. Instead, they tried to steer women away from abortion. In addition, the CCDH also found that 28% of Google ads displayed across search results were for anti-abortion clinics.
“Directing women toward fake clinics that traffic in misinformation and don’t provide comprehensive health services is dangerous to women’s health and undermines the integrity of Google’s search results,” Democratic lawmakers wrote in the letter.
Misinformation is really crucial, especially when it is related to something like Google. Google is the most popular search engine with more than 90% of the global market share.
“When people search for information or services relating to their sexual and reproductive health, Google is sending them to sites that users might expect contains robust, scientific, evidence-driven healthcare information—but they actually contain ideologically-driven opinion and misinformation,” says Imran Ahmed, the CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
Ahmed further adds that with big companies like Google which have major impacts on people’s lives, it’s crucial for these platforms to act responsibly and fix these accounts of misinformation.
“If Google must continue showing these misleading results in search results and Google Maps, the results should, at the very least, be appropriately labeled,” the legislators wrote.
Sources:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1655667897911x455898890068321600/Google%20results%20for%20abortion%20clinics%20are%20suggesting%20%27fake%20clinics%27%20before%20SCOTUS%20ruling%2C%20lawmakers%20say%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-06-lawmakers-google-abortion-users-anti-abortion.html
These ‘fake abortion clinics,’ also called “crisis pregnancy centers” or “pregnancy resource centers,” did not provide options for abortion. Instead, they tried to steer women away from abortion. In addition, the CCDH also found that 28% of Google ads displayed across search results were for anti-abortion clinics.
“Directing women toward fake clinics that traffic in misinformation and don’t provide comprehensive health services is dangerous to women’s health and undermines the integrity of Google’s search results,” Democratic lawmakers wrote in the letter.
Misinformation is really crucial, especially when it is related to something like Google. Google is the most popular search engine with more than 90% of the global market share.
“When people search for information or services relating to their sexual and reproductive health, Google is sending them to sites that users might expect contains robust, scientific, evidence-driven healthcare information—but they actually contain ideologically-driven opinion and misinformation,” says Imran Ahmed, the CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
Ahmed further adds that with big companies like Google which have major impacts on people’s lives, it’s crucial for these platforms to act responsibly and fix these accounts of misinformation.
“If Google must continue showing these misleading results in search results and Google Maps, the results should, at the very least, be appropriately labeled,” the legislators wrote.
Sources:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1655667897911x455898890068321600/Google%20results%20for%20abortion%20clinics%20are%20suggesting%20%27fake%20clinics%27%20before%20SCOTUS%20ruling%2C%20lawmakers%20say%20-%20The%20Washington%20Post.pdf
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-06-lawmakers-google-abortion-users-anti-abortion.html
