Germany's Former First Lady Sues Google for 'Prostitute' Algorithm: Whose Side Are You On?
AdriHead
2012/09/12 22:21:28
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Bettina Wulff, Germany's former first lady, is not a prostitute -- and she want you to know it. The wife of former German President Christian Wulff is suing Google over its autocomplete function while searching, which shows the words "prostitute" and "escort" after Wulff's name is typed out.
The former German first lady says she's never been a prostitute but that rumors circulated about her allegedly racy past around 2006, most likely to harm her husband's political career. Wulff may not be a prostitute, but do you think the lawsuit is fair? Or is Google being sued for all the wrong reasons?
NYDAILYNEWS.COM reports:
The former German first lady says she's never been a prostitute but that rumors circulated about her allegedly racy past around 2006, most likely to harm her husband's political career. Wulff may not be a prostitute, but do you think the lawsuit is fair? Or is Google being sued for all the wrong reasons?
NYDAILYNEWS.COM reports:
Germany’s former first lady is not happy with her Google results. Bettina Wulff, 38, is suing the search giant over their autocomplete function, which she argues perpetuates rumors that she was once a prostitute.
Read More: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/bettina-wulf...
Top Opinion
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Mog of War 2012/09/12 22:29:44Team Google!
+12Google's autocomplete feature is base on popular searches. Deal with it. Google could probably filter this from their autocomplete, and likely will, so this lawsuit is pointless.
She pops up in conjunction with searches of prostitutes, escorts, and patron of German sex clubs. I don't know German law, but from a simple 'common sense' viewpoint her lawsuit is frivolous. As another poster here pointed out, she is responsible for generating a 'Streisand Effect,' where very few of us would be aware of any of these rumors had she not stirred up the pot so well and called worldwide attention to them.
Any searching of her name, which also searches prostitution and sex, is not spite at this point. It is a direct result of her own tantrum and mean-spirited (code for a less polite word) folly.
I just googled all that. Several times.
Google "Santorum" and see what it says... the 'spreading' page used to be the top result.
Google should be bigger than that, and give the woman more respect.
Yew is SOOO smart.
I am skeptical of your line of defense.
Them Googles is so smart, they can excrement us an algorithmic panacea.
If YOUR name perpetually came up in conjunction with pedophilia, you might be more understanding.
It's on the people searching, not Google...
Google has a quandary, I'll admit.
I also am not up on German law, so libel may be quite different there.
I repeat, what would you do if your name was coupled with scat-eating pedophile, ebola-carrier cannibal on Google every time?
"I would realize that Google can't control what people are typing and note that it's a computer program to blame, not Google itself."
I would ignore it and get on with my life.
What would you do if you had a heinous wad of bubblegum tangled up in your dreads?
Perhaps you should be censored too, for bad tag lines like "Yew is SOOO smart."
I do not profess to know the solution to this issue.
But YEW AIN'T nearly as smart as you believe yourself to be.
Hitler liked to Censor what people saw too.... that worked out really well for a few million people!
No... Google should NEVER Censor anything. If the lady didn't want a shady past to be a problem today, she should have thought of that when she was being shady.
So... therefore... YOU should be held liable for the stuff that YOU search for, because the stuff you type into the search is indexed and others may see.
1) Google's algorithm is damn good to be pulling up searches from six years ago.
2) She is of little relevance to the internet, such that her rumored racy past is the only thing that the internet finds use of her name for.