Google is not just a platform – It frames, shapes and distorts how we see
I think the author is missing an important point: people who are genuinely curious about Holocaust usually don&#x27;t type &quot;did the holocaust happen&quot;.<p>Instead, they will more likely type &quot;holocaust statistics&quot;, &quot;holocaust wikipedia&quot;, &quot;what is holocaust&quot;, or simply &quot;holocaust&quot;.  Each of these queries brings up a &quot;clean&quot; result page.<p>On the other hand, it is those people who already think&#x2F;suspect Holocaust isn&#x27;t real that disproportionately type in &quot;did the holocaust happen&quot;, they find the stormfront website, and they click on it because it matches their preconception.  Google learns that users typing this particular query likes this result, and acts accordingly.<p>To Google&#x27;s algorithm, this is exactly like learning that people typing &quot;introduction to algorithms&quot; love to go to the Amazon page selling the venerable CLRS.  Nothing inherently nefarious.<p>In other words, I think it&#x27;s not StormFront that&#x27;s &quot;gaming&quot; the system.  The system is made of people, some of whom really really like StormFront, and Google&#x27;s results (for better or worse) just reflect that reality.