Google encourages Star Trek: Picard fans to read latest news on neo-Nazi website Daily Stormer
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Google recommended Star Trek fans read an article on neo-Nazi website the Daily Stormer.
The recommendation came as part of Google's news feature, which is supposed to recommend stories and websites that might be of interest to users, based on their previous browsing.
The tool appears to have picked up that certain people were interested in Picard, the recently released Star Trek series. But it then directed those people to look at an article on the far-right website, popping up a link on their screen.
The article was advancing a conspiracy theory that everyone talking positively about the series in comment sections were being paid by the studio behind it.
The Daily Stormer regularly pushes white supremacist stories as well as Holocaust denial and other neo-Nazi talking points.
When the problem was raised on Twitter, Google's Danny Sullivan, who works as the company's search liaison, explained that the issue had arisen in Google's discover feed.
He said that content in that feed was supposed to keep to the same rules as Google News, meaning that such content should be filtered out. But he explained that the problem had arisen because the site had moved to a different site.
"Our apologies for this," he wrote. "The site had previously been blocked from showing in Google News surfaces, including Discover, for violating our news content policies. It shifted domains.
"We should've caught the change but didn't. We're taking steps to avoid this in the future."
The Daily Stormer has been forced to move around the internet as it attempts to stay online. Various companies that provide the infrastructure that keep it on the web have refused to support it because of the views espoused on the site.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments