Mermaids get award for “re-educating Google”

[Forgotthebins]

I was looking up some stuff today and came across this gem: that Mermaids and ad agency RAPP have received a “data for good” award for “re-educating Google”. Honestly, at first it made me giggle given Mermaids’ data protection breach, to see them win a “data for good” award. But actually it’s kind of worrying that the award is for flooding Google with Mermaids content, directed at parents whose children are gender questioning. I have no wish for parents have to face transphobic stuff on the web, but what makes Google, RAPP or Mermaids the authority on what is right for individual children and their families? If anything, shouldn’t they try to push the NHS gender web page up the search engine results?

twitter.com/TheDataIQ/status/1420403606336024580?s=20

www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/campaign-media-awards-2021-best-use-insight/1712692

Astonishing. Google has a lot to answer for.

I wonder who Mermaids know that work at Google

That is seriously chilling. Not just about mermaids but the way we are directed by search results. It’s thought control. I mean; I know it happens with algorithms and the media bit seeing it applauded and laid out like that is a bit, well, disturbing.

That's a really serious development.

I know "We done some SEO" isn't the snappiest title, but someone honestly chose "Re-educating Google". Hahaha.

Into the gulag with us, comrades!

Horrific

I'll be using DuckDuckGo even more now for my searches then

I hope this sort of thing will be remembered when the 'wtf happened in the 2010s and 2020s' history books come to be written. And by the lawyers.

@Tesla73

I'll be using DuckDuckGo even more now for my searches then

I don't use Google for anything. They have too much power now.

Always awards.

@Tesla73

I'll be using DuckDuckGo even more now for my searches then

Don’t do that. Isn’t it that the more people Google “transgender trend” and “Bayswater support”l and other such examples the more likely they are to be found by other people? Unless they’re being actively suppressed .

Didn't Mermaids buy up domain names close to the Transgender Trend website so that people searching for Transgender Trend were automatically redurected to Mermaids? If anyone thinks that's how to "do the internet" then we should fear for our future

Imagine being clever enough to work for Google and then falling for that.

Isn’t it that the more people Google “transgender trend” and “Bayswater support”l and other such examples the more likely they are to be found by other people? Unless they’re being actively suppressed

This. We need Google to see people searching for & clicking on GC / feminist sites.

Yes good point @NotBadConsidering

I think Google do actively supress results. Not always for bad reasons, for example, searches for ways to commit suicide will bring up suicide prevention hotlines first. During the height of the pandemic, anti vax websites were also pushed down the list. There was also that test, I think it was said on here, when you type in “women murdered in 2020” and the main results are about trans women. Whether that’s Google themselves doing the latter, or a planned out Google-bomb, I’m not sure

The US welcomed Andrew Wakefield*, so Green and Webberly can also look forward to lucrative futures there.

(*Listed on Google as 'British Physician.')

@plodalong12

I think Google do actively supress results. Not always for bad reasons, for example, searches for ways to commit suicide will bring up suicide prevention hotlines first. During the height of the pandemic, anti vax websites were also pushed down the list. There was also that test, I think it was said on here, when you type in “women murdered in 2020” and the main results are about trans women. Whether that’s Google themselves doing the latter, or a planned out Google-bomb, I’m not sure

I don't think any of that is good, tbh. I don't want search engines to judge and control and rank information according to their political priorities; I want them to provide the information I'm looking for. I'm an adult capable of making up her own mind what to do with that information.

@beastlyslumber I sort of agree and disagree, I don’t think there’s anything bad about making sure pro-suicide-encouragement websites are pushed far down the list if an already depressed person (not always an adult, either) is so low that they searched suicide techniques out.

I guess I wouldn't mind that if it were a single exception to a general rule.

I question how many pro-suicide sites there are that would need to be pushed down the rankings. A few years ago I was searching extensively for weeks to find suicide advice and literally all I got was people telling me not to do it. I came to the conclusion that there isn't any advice online that would help someone kill themselves. If there had been, I would definitely have found it!

I thought re-education was a bad thing. It was what the baddies did in Miss Saigon.

To be honest I don’t know enough about the technical side to know how RAPP (the ad agency) and Mermaids did this. But this line really bothered me, that after whatever RAPP did, “Mermaids ranked higher than the NHS for the search phrase: ‘How do I support my transgender child?’”. (In the write up in Campaign, second link in my OP.) I don’t think they have any right to be ranked higher than the National Health Service. Its all a bit arrogant, and from the way that article reads it suggests that Mermaids are implying the NHS is transphobic. In terms of suicide prevention I would much rather a vulnerable child or worried parent found the NHS, or even a range of different support providers.

Oh and of course Mermaids have big business like Starbucks and ad agencies backing them, but our monitors will happily say that it is feminists who are funded by the American right. Hmmm.

@beastlyslumber

I guess I wouldn't mind that if it were a single exception to a general rule.

I question how many pro-suicide sites there are that would need to be pushed down the rankings. A few years ago I was searching extensively for weeks to find suicide advice and literally all I got was people telling me not to do it. I came to the conclusion that there isn't any advice online that would help someone kill themselves. If there had been, I would definitely have found it!

But that is exactly my point. You didn’t find it because Google (I presume you used Google) didn’t bring them up. And as this story from 2019 shows, it’s a very real thing:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7087317/Family-woman-killed-slam-pro-choice-suicide-forum.html

I’ve seen posts encouraging suicide in the forms of forums, but in particular on Twitter and Tumblr. I know Google can’t control what people post on forums, Twitter and Tumblr but they can certainly hide the results as though they don’t exist.

If you don’t believe me, Google “pro suicide forum” and then go on the previously mentioned search engine DuckDuckGo.com and search for the same term. The results on the latter are a LOT different as to what Google brings up.

But that is exactly my point. You didn’t find it because Google (I presume you used Google) didn’t bring them up.

I didn't use google. You might be right, definitely, but I'm not convinced there are tonnes of sites out there either encouraging suicide or giving info on how to do it.

@beastlyslumber

But that is exactly my point. You didn’t find it because Google (I presume you used Google) didn’t bring them up.

I didn't use google. You might be right, definitely, but I'm not convinced there are tonnes of sites out there either encouraging suicide or giving info on how to do it.

I’ve just searched a term on DuckDuckGo relating to this. These are the titles of the first sites that come up (in order). I won’t provide links for obvious reasons:

“How to commit suicide the right way”
“5 easy and painless ways to suicide”
“101 ways to commit suicide”
“10 fun ways to commit suicide”
“How to commit suicide”
“The Ten Minute Suicide Guide”

This was not delving deep into search results, these were the first search results and a quick glance shows that they very much provide “how-to guides”. I didn’t even get past the first page for further examples so god knows what else I would have found if I took the time.

Sorry if I sound patronising, I really don’t mean to, but it frustrates me that people don’t realise how much twisted stuff is on the internet and just because it’s not always available via a Google search, doesn’t mean content isn’t sitting online in plain sight.