Madeleine McCann horrible jokes on Google

[Siane]

Hi - I recently missed the news headlines and knew there was one about MM, so I went to Google and tapped in her name into the search engine. As you know, as you begin to type, suggestions drop down below. The first one was obviously her full name. The second one is, 'Madeleine McCann Jokes'. I nearly fell off my chair. I am aware they are on the web, but this is Google, actively directing people towards this self contained category. And - Google should direct people to the most searched option. However, there is 136,000 of these pages compated to over 3,000,000 for Michael Jackson. They have taken down that category (i.e. Michael Jackson Jokes) as it is inappropriate. They have removed any suggestions for porn sites, or other offensive material. However, when I got in contact with them they will not stop directing people to Madeleine McCann Jokes. I am furious with them - just because they are massive and corporate...can they not apply some BASIC ethics? Anyway, the only way they'll listen is if other people come forward. I've got a petition set up but only 6 friends have signed it! Please help me and sign. Imagine if your child was missing and when you or your mum, or husband tapped her name into Google to find out any developments, the category 'Jokes' appeared immediately under her name, before 'news' or 'own website' or anything.
Here's the link.
Please help - I'm determined to remove this material just to take away one other source of angst from her family, tiny in comparison though it might be.
thank you.
www.petitiononline.com/nohateMM/petition.html

Ah. So it's not just 'living in a country that operates to a code' then It is, in fact, a personal interest.

got to log off to do lunch for my girls.
All I want is it to be taken off the predictive search on the home page. Not off the internet (although I would but I'm not suggesting that), just off the suggetions. Type the whole thing in if you want to see it. Just don't display it if you want normal news.
Thanks for those who supported it. Sorry to those who think I'm pro censorship, you've misunderstood.
www.petitiononline.com/nohateMM/petition.html

serendipitousharlot - nice post. Have you never been moved to act by something that you think is important? I'm off now.

Siane, I am not sure where I stand on this as on the one hand I can see what your saying about anyone's parents having to deal with this on top of everything else, but I can also see the censorship issue as being problematic.

However, either way I respect your passion for something you believe in and that you have actually tried to do something about it. Don't be disheartened, everyone comes at something from a different angle and not all will agree.

I do agree that if Google have pulled the 'Michael Jackson jokes' as a suggested hit then they should either not to censor at all or have some fair and transparent policy that applies to all.

Good luck with the petition.

I'm not missing your point at all. Of course we live in countries that have a "code" (though don't assume I live in your country..I don't), but you don't appreciate that it doesn't extend to things such as this. Social standards and mores are one thing, censorship is something else. Your thing is perhaps somewhere inbetween, but you are assuming that everyone agrees with you, or should agree with you, and that is your code, not mine.

And I doubt very much that google search protocols on jokes are even on the radar of parents of a missing child.

proverbial- I'm not insisting this is my code. I'm proposing that it is a decent code, to not make jokes about a threatened child. I think I'm right in that assumption - I'm not being presumptious, most people would say it was distasteful. If Google operate a code of conduct, then I would like it extended to this.
I'm sure it's not on the parents' radar. I do know however, that the negative response they've had from people or organisations has been difficult. I also think I would be doing this whether they would have any awareness of it at all - I don't want my kids to have Google point them at distasteful material when they were searching for something else entirely. For example, my stepson typed in 'Jew' for part of his RE project and the first site Google suggested, was 'Jew Watch'. If you want to go to Jew Watch, type the whole thing in. He's 13 and was directed, completely without any intention on his part, to a site which is all about hate. I am not talking about censorship. I am talking about operating a consistent policy - which they have - and taking it from porn across other areas.

all you have to type now to get michael jackson jokes is
michael jackson j

which could be anything really

so they are a funny bunch this google

i have singed the petition due to the disparity

poor girl died years ago, she is not alive.

There are far too many daft and trivial petitions around that, in my view, belittle the bigger, more important issues.

People can and do make jokes about anything they want, and you are telling them they shouldn't, because you find it distasteful. That certainly sounds like you are promoting your own code there, one I don't agree with. Its not porn, its not holocaust denial, its a news item, one that captured the imagination of many (all though I've never been sure why the outpouring of grief for one missing child when there are hundreds of thousands of missing and threatened children who are ignored?)

Don't tell us what we should find distasteful. I have my own standards and ethics, you don't have any right to judge them or me.

Proverbial.

Siane isn't saying that nobody should make jokes about Madeline
Siane isn't saying that Google should stop these results appearing in the results
Siane is saying that google shouldn't SUGGEST you google for Madeline jokes
Siane is saying that it is unfair for google to actively stop SUGGESTING michael Jackson jokes, and not apply the same ethics to Madeline McCann.

This is not about the google search results. This is about teh suggestions that google offeres before you have finished typing your search query.

I haven't signed the petition because I don't generally sign petitions, and this is a little "petty" for want of a better word.

siane is not telling people they cannot joke about the mccanns, michael jackson or children with cancer
people can do what they want
she was wondering why Google, the company, chooses to have certain things as suggestions on predictive text, and not others
what is their code?

clearly enough people complained about the michael jackson one to move it down a notch
but they won't act unless enough people complain about the mccann business

i THINK that is all she is saying

i think the whole thing is a bit odd

we can all search for what we want, in this country, and the nature of the internet means that Google have to dance a strange moral path, but it would be nice to see what their actual statement is on the matter of suggested sites

Quite proverbial, she is not the only child to go missing.

I've just typed "welsh j" in to google and it offerend up 1.25 million pages dedicated to jokes about the Welsh.

I doubt the McCanns are using Google to find their daughter - furthermore they both appear to be intelligent, educated and pragmatic people - working the medical field no less. Ever been subject to medical humour? These are the people who joke about TF Bundy (s) - people use jokes in the poorest possible taste every day.

cross posts perfect!!

Only half a million jokes for "princess diana j" - she was a mother!

Sorry, I have much bigger things to worry about at present than what a search engine brings up, tbh.

Good luck with your petition.

i doubt many people will join and it won't make a difference to Google, but Siane raises an interesting point about corporate ethics and the internet age

whatever you think of the McCanns, Michael Jackson, etc...

for example this is interesting

investor.google.com/conduct.html
www.google.com/corporate/tenthings.html

probably read digest cogitate and discuss

I've signed it Siane.Like she said ladies , if they can do it for michael fucking jackson..they can do it for madelaine.C'mon let's have some sisterhood going on for Kate at least.It's a tiny little thing in our lives that'l take a second or two.Im sure the McCann's know that there are horrible sites containing sick jokes sbout their little girl.I doubt it will impact on their lives greatly if they knew that some people had campaigned to have the link removed from a search engine,but it might make them smile.

As someone who tortures herself with thoughts of how they carry on day to day..i for one would like to offer them a bit of happiness.

umm, she is saying exacty that... "I'm proposing that it is a decent code, to not make jokes about a threatened child. I think I'm right in that assumption - I'm not being presumptious, most people would say it was distasteful."

Mine too, Hope, micheal jackson jokes aplenty.. so the paralell is not there. Google searches determining our moral code..no bloody thanks.

What trivial nonsense. If you don't like reading jokes about someone then don't. Why this desire to stop others reading them? Not my idea of a fun time, but then neither is stopping folk finding them. What awful thing is going to happen because some folk read a few tasteless jokes? I presume her family have better things to do than hunting for jokes on Google and getting upset when they find them. They must know the jokes are out there.
google went wrong by removing the Michael Jackson jokes search category. He's much funnier.

They both have not been censured ..

The OP was saying that

"Michael Jackson" has been censured, not "michael Jackson j"

In the case of MM "Madeline" alone brings up the suggestion of MM jokes.

I don't know whether it has been actively censored or not....