Widely unknown to the public, search engines are extremely biassed. The algorithms that were created for these search engines typically show websites that paid to be shown first or perhaps they show websites that have been most clicked on in the past, which still doesn’t take into account the relevancy of the information.
The algorithms of search engines tend to present racist and sexist information about women, most namely women of color. 1 Once the term “black girls” was searched in Google in the early ’10s, hypersexualized and derogatory results came up. These results speak to the algorithm that created it, instead of showing results about famous black women throughout history or the accomplishments of these women through the years, it instead showed pornographic results which implies that these women of color are shown as objects. Algorithms are developed by humans, and this bias in search results, the racism and sexism in today’s era is still prevalent.
Today’s bias in algorithms play into the Long Civil Rights Movement, where racial and gender equality have yet to be met but are on the path to be. Back in the 1930’s, women did not have the rights that they have today. Although women were starting to join the workforce as the men were off at war, they were still seen as belonging in a domestic environment. Today, women are seen doing incredible things, they’re seen in government positions, as doctors, and soldiers. But when searching for women on the internet, objectifying results still come up. And why? It’s because of the bias in today’s society towards women which is reflected in these major algorithms.
There is a way that today’s society can combat try and combat this bias. Algorithms have to be questioned 2 and users should look at what the results cater to. Do the results cater to those who pay for advertisements? Do they cater to only one race instead of including a multitude of races? Do they present gender inequality? These questions should be asked when using a search engine. It’s important to realize that finding information does not only have to be through Google Searching. There are a wide variety of public resources such as libraries, teachers, and even online databases. In questioning the method of how search results come up and in finding other ways to research information, society can be better consumers of digital media and not give into the bias of algorithmic results.
