According to a new study on algorithms by professors at German and Swiss universities, Google is the search engine with the most “conspiracy-free” search results.
The study -- which examined how algorithms filter “conspiratorial information” in search results -- specifically took a look at “the distribution of conspiratorial information in search results across five search engines: Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yahoo and Yandex.”
The study found that some search engines “contribute to the proliferation of conspiracy theories.”
The study continued, saying by “using a virtual agent-based infrastructure, we systematically collect[ed] search outputs for six conspiracy theory-related queries ('flat earth', 'new world order', 'qanon', '9/11', 'illuminati', 'george soros') across three locations (two in the US and one in the UK) and two observation periods (March and May 2021).”
Categories analyzing the nature of the content displayed included “debunks conspiracy,” “no mention of conspiracy,” and “promotes conspiracy.”
As for so-called solutions, the authors recommended “comprehensive auditing” of web search results in order to combat “misinformation” and “conspiracy theories” online:
“Considering the potential harm which can be caused by search bias and factually inaccurate information, we suggest that comprehensive auditing of web search is of no less importance than the critical examinations of content appearing on legacy or social media. We strive to add to the body of literature on web search malperformance through an analysis of presence of conspiratorial information in search results.”
The research concluded that Google had the “highest share of content that did not mention conspiracy theories,” while Yandex had “the highest proportion of conspiracy-promoting content.”
Results for “9/11” had the lowest number of “conspiracy-promoting” content, while terms like “Illuminati,” “qanon,” and “flat earth” had the highest number of the aforementioned content.
Naturally, Google software engineer Paul Haahr praised the search engine’s ability to filter out certain information online, tweeting that "[i]t's a bit self-serving...to repost this study, but I'm really proud of the teams at Google that did the work which make our results nearly 'conspiracy-free.'"
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