Remember back in the summer when that screenshot was making the rounds that appeared to suggest, via Google search suggestions, that black people were more likely to steal cars than white ones ?
Google is again being accused of search suggestion bias, this time with a question about Google and Islam. By now, pretty much everyone knows you can type “(variable) is” into the Google search box and receive a host of inane results suggested based on previous searches. Using the simple substitution of “pineapple juice,” for example, leads results with “pineapple juice sperm taste.”
Typing in “Christianity is” at the search box yields a host of bizarre and possibly offensive results, as does “Judaism is” or “Buddhism is.” However, changing the search query to “Islam is” yields nothing. Nada. Not even “Islam is a religion of peace” or “Islam is a common religion in…” Try it, and let me know in the comments if that changes.
UPDATE: Google confirms the results and blames a “bug” for the disparity.