Last week I received an email from my mom's best friend that seemed like just another chain email that we tend to delete before even opening. However, the fact that it was from my mom's best friend seemed like an enticing reason to actually open the email. Upon clicking "read" I was thoroughly disgusted because the email I received discussed a website by the name of "Jew-Watch". When one enters the word "Jew" into Google search, the second website that comes up is Jew Watch, a hateful website devoted to anti-semitism. This email I was receiving was asking me to sign a petition to ask Google to remove Jew Watch from their search responses.
Google search is an online standard that we all use everyday. Sometimes I do not even notice that I am using it because searching for something has just become so engrained in my mind as an automatic response. Google is the number one website on the Internet so we expect it to always deliver exactly what we need when we are searching for a certain website or piece of information. Google has become a part of our daily lives. We even use the term "Googling" to refer to looking a piece of information up, regardless of whether we even use Google to do so. It has become such a norm in our lives that we do not even notice our extreme usage of Google anymore.
However, when something goes wrong such as finding an anti-semitic website as the second response to typing in the word "Jew", many people's inner alarm systems automatically trigger. We call this the "Leviathan" because it shows up as the enforcer in our adherence to online standards and norms such as using Google search. Being Jewish, I am offended that Google would keep this website so high up on their search. It is offensive and degrading and should NOT be the first thing anyone sees when the search the word "Jew". If Google is the most used website on the Internet, then this is just unaccpetable. When I received the email from my mother's friend, I immediately signed the petition to have "Jew-Watch" taken off of Google's search. I, along with hundreds of thousands of enraged citizens, acted as the Leviathan in this situation by attmepting to correct a violation of society's norms. It is not normal to spread hateful messages and disrespectful remarks. The Leviathan is an invisible concept until something goes wrong, and in this situation, something went wrong. So we Leviathans responded. Google states that they will correc their website if petitions arise of more than 50,000 and so by acting as the Leviathan, the collective group of petitioners hope to get "Jew-Watch" taken down from Google's search.
When using such a popular site as Google, I would hope that it would be "moderated" as Wallace describes in chapter four. However, if sites such as "Jew-Watch" are readily available, then maybe it is unmoderated? Are we the people the moderators? Are we forced to sign a petition everytime there is something offensive on Google? Apparently so. If Google uses a moderation type setting such as Youtube or Wikipedia, who have "authority figures" that censor articles and posts that are either offensive, wrong or inappropriate, then Google would not run into the problem they are having right now. As Wallace says, "we want the Internet to flourish," but there are only so many boundaries that we can cross even on the Internet. Even though the Internet is meant to house all different types of opinions, it cannot be used to spread hate. I am an understanding person that knows people have the freedom of speech to say whatever they want, but we cannot accept this as an excuse for why Google allows "Jew-Watch" to remain an active search response. This is why the Levaithan needs to step in and enforce society's standards. Google has violated a trust, and it needs to be corrected. Like Wallace says, there is a certain standard of "netiquette" that we must follow.
http://comm245blue.blogspot.com/2007/10/assignment-6-option-1-netiquette.html
http://comm245blue.blogspot.com/2007/10/assignment-6-option-1-almighty.html
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3 comments:
I like how you used your post as an opportunity to notice an online space that is lacking but may need a leviathan.
Your point is a very interesting one. Is google responsible for the searches that it's almighty algorithm produces? Google's mission is to make all information easily accessible, and its algorithm produces the websites that most people visit. It would be a conflict of interest for google to play a roll in what information it decides to display and what it doesn't. I think you make a fair point, and I'm not really comfortable with Jew-watch being the second hit on google either, but I really can't say with any confidence that it is google's place to censor the internet. Perhaps with enough public outcry, in the form of the petition you mentioned, google should take action, but than Google isn't the leviathan, its the internet's users.
Hey!
I really liked your post.
Generally when I think of a Leviathan, I think of an actual inside moderator, someone who works behind the website and enforces certain rules and norms. I never thought of a Leviathan as being an outside element (us), who in this case, are pushing Google to remove a website from its list of searches.
Hey!
I really liked your post.
Generally when I think of a Leviathan, I think of an actual inside moderator, someone who works behind the website and enforces certain rules and norms. I never thought of a Leviathan as being an outside element (us), who in this case, are pushing Google to remove a website from its list of searches.
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