Google won't exclude distorted Michelle Obama image from its site "It's an improvement!"
Leroy N. Soetoro
Michelle's monkey picture goes away now.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-google-obama25-
2009nov25,0,98932.story
See monkey pic here:
http://www.flystylelife.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/michelle-obama-
ape.jpg
'We have, in general, a bias toward free speech,' a Google spokesman says,
explaining that offensiveness alone is not a reason to remove the image
from the search index.
A crudely altered photograph of Michelle Obama, which often comes up as
the first result on a Google image search of her name, will not be removed
from the company's search process despite protests that the depiction is
racist and repugnant.
"It's offensive to many people, but that alone is not a reason to remove
it from our search index," Google Inc. spokesman Scott Rubin said Tuesday.
"We have, in general, a bias toward free speech."
The image, which depicts the first lady as having monkey-like features, is
posted without explanation on a blog called Hot Girls -- which also
contains several legitimate photographs of Obama.
Although Google won't alter the process that places the offending image
among its top results, the company placed a house advertisement with the
headline "Offensive Search Results" above the picture. Clicking the ad
leads to a statement that says, in part, "We assure you that the views
expressed by such sites are not in any way endorsed by Google."
The statement apologizes "if you've had an upsetting experience using
Google," but it states that Web pages are not removed from its process
unless the content is illegal or violates the company's webmaster
guidelines. Rubin said nothing in the guidelines deals with this kind of
imagery.
Google has posted similar statements in rare instances, notably in 2004
when searches for "Jew" yielded a virulently anti-Semitic site as the top
result. Rubin said the statement is sometimes used in situations in which
there are "offensive search results on an innocuous query."
The Hot Girls blog has an additional Google connection: It was produced
using Blogger, an online tool owned by the search company. And it resides
on the Blogger platform, which hosts blogs and is also owned by Google.
Rubin said Blogger users have to adhere to the site's terms of service,
including a ban on hate speech, which the agreement defines as "content
that promotes hate or violence towards groups based on race, ethnicity,
religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status or sexual
orientation/gender identity."
Rubin would not comment specifically on the Hot Girls blog. But he said
that a determination of hate speech, under company terms, would heavily
rely on whether a site was "attacking or advocating attacks on a person."
"An image alone may not provide enough context to constitute a violation
of the policies," he added.
A different website containing the same altered image of Obama was banned
by Google several days ago, but only because the site was deemed to
contain malware that could spread a virus or similar online malady. When a
site is dropped from Google's index, the search engine will not present it
as a result.
--
Nancy Pelosi, Democrat criminal, accessory before and after the fact to
Rangel's tax evasion.