Google and Facebook work on billions of people. Why do they need absolute power over the world?
T-giants have long learned to manipulate the minds of billions of people around the world. And they do it imperceptibly: the average person is unlikely to distinguish his opinion from that suggested by the algorithm through the posts of friends and favorite communities. What do Google and Facebook want from humanity and how can they be stopped on their way to world domination? About this and many other things in the framework of a large-scale project “Algorithm. Who controls you?” “Lente.ru” narrated by Robert Epstein, Ph.D. from Harvard University, psychologist and senior researcher at the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology in California, author of 15 books.
"Lenta.ru": I discovered the potential danger of algorithms much earlier than many. How did you understand that the Google search engine algorithm , which everyone considers a useful and harmless service, can actually affect people's beliefs and even the results of elections?
Epstein : I came across a study of marketers who found that just a small increase in Google SERPs would lead to a measurable increase in sales. Because the higher the link to your site in search, the more people will click on it. For example, this study found that 50 percent of the clicks were on the first two results and 95 percent on the first page. As a researcher, I wondered if these results could be used to change a user's opinion. It may even affect the voting results.
Early 2013. I thought that if research results were biased toward one of the candidates in an election, it affected the decision of two or three percent of undecided voters. It is almost impossible to influence the decision of people who have already decided, but there are also many who hesitate. And it is their votes that strongly influence the outcome of the elections.
We found that SERP fraud can influence the decision of nearly 48 percent of hesitant people. I couldn't believe it was possible at all
The second experiment showed that there could be more of these people - up to 63 percent. In addition, it became clear that this bias is easy to hide.
We discovered dozens of such manipulations. All of them are the work of tech giants, especially Google and Facebook. This makes them a serious threat, because it is impossible to influence them and there is simply no real competition between them. They are able to influence people on any issue, on any scale and in any country in the world. No one will know about it.
In internal correspondence, Google employees refer to mixing SERPs as an ephemeral experiment. This is a process where search results are generated in real time, individually for each user, and then disappear and are not stored anywhere.
In 2018, the Wall Street Journal published excerpts from leaked emails from Google employees . A participant in the correspondence suggests using the ephemeral method of experiment to influence the attitude of Americans toward Trump's anti-immigration decree. So they totally understand what they're doing. Moreover, they are confident that no one will notice these manipulations. If they use ephemeral experiments, there is simply no physical evidence left.
It is impossible to determine whether or not they are using these manipulation techniques. Through our research we have learned to recognize this, but the average person has no idea that it is being manipulated.
We think Google was just a very good sorting machine that depends on the user and makes money from ads . But, according to you, this device may have more serious plans - even reprogramming humanity. What do you think Google means by this? Where is the line between a useful tool and a service that has a negative impact on all of humanity?
In 2018 as a result of leaks in public access he got eight videos called The Selfish Ledger - one of Google's internal projects .
We learned that the company has every opportunity to reprogram humanity. The video states that the company's values need to be spread and protected around the world. This company was undoubtedly founded by utopians. They are still utopian and ready to use force. Part of their culture is to spread their values around the world. This is a serious threat to democracy. We estimate that in 2015, up to 25 percent of election results worldwide were determined by Google search engines . Since most elections are more or less closed, data about them in the search results is usually biased and influences the decision of undecided voters.
Google was a really innocuous thing, and it's a great reference for the internet. But it is now a completely different company. They follow us, not only by search, but also by mail and many other services. In fact, there are more than two hundred of them.
Google bought smart thermostat maker Nest a few years ago. The first thing they did was put the microphones into smart thermostats without telling anyone. Cameras are built into the latest hardware versions. In January of this year, the company announced that it had struck a deal to buy smartwatch maker Fitbit , which can be used to track health data. I've got Google already on all of this information, or they Stmtlkha soon. And during the coronavirus pandemic, the company had access to a huge set of data about Americans' health.
Google also volunteers to operate the US National DNA Repository. They have data on the DNA of millions of people, maybe tens and hundreds of millions - I don't know for sure. They definitely use every opportunity to follow people as closely as possible. After all, the more you know about people, the easier it is to manipulate them.
Google has changed the design of its contextual ads at different times. At some point, it became almost impossible to distinguish it from the results of a normal version. Why is no one responsible for this?
In the US, no one connects to Google for an account at all. Because, in fact, the company is backed by Democrats, and Republicans aren't very supportive of the idea of regulation. So in the US, Google isn't regulated at all, and I'm not sure if that will ever change.
In the European Union, things are different: in recent years, Europeans have brought several lawsuits against Google . I think Google has been fined a total of ten billion euros over the past four to five years, and the company is still facing a lot of lawsuits. But Google is just getting rid of them. For example, Europeans are deeply concerned that ads on the search network are indistinguishable from the main results. For a while, Google made it different from organic search results, but it gradually reverted back to its former form. As a result, it is still very difficult to see the difference. The Europeans are closely investigating Google , studying any change that cannot be said about the US authorities.
Why do most people blindly believe search results?
Research shows that people trust data from computers. They trust algorithms without knowing who is behind them. They think this data is objective.
Search, recommendations, any answers for voice assistants - all this data is considered correct by default, because it comes from the device. But people do not think about the fact that there is a person behind the car. It is clear that newspapers, television and radio are made by human forces. But in the case of content from a computer, this idea is not so clear. Is there a human hand in the search results? naturally. After all, this is the result of a computer program written by people. The research shows that programmer bias is reflected in the code they write. So the human factor is already there at the time the service is created.
Google , as we know from leaks, changes its search algorithm at least three thousand times a year. A few years ago, they at least warned in advance of big changes, but now they have not done so either. They change their search algorithm about ten times a day. So yes, people influence the content you see. With only one exception: you can't track this effect.
From the data leak, Google also realized that there was a guide called twiddler framework. He described a system for rearranging search results. They have really developed the technical ability to change search results. As the informant explained to me, they can include biased results and can be removed just as easily. It's easy how to turn on the light in the room.
We have tested this mechanism working on ourselves while collecting data before the 2020 US Presidential Election. We have developed a system to monitor what people see on their screens. During the race, we saw a significant bias in Google search results in favor of Democrats. We released this information in November, a few days before the election, and Google was forced to stop being manipulated. In January 2021, during the second round of the Georgia state Senate elections, we noticed that Google search results suddenly became unbiased.
They just stepped back, and turned off the tamper switch, because we held hands.
Were you contacted by candidate representatives during the 2020 campaign? Do you want to use your research for your campaigns?
My research describes techniques that use large platforms. Only they have complete control over what people see.
Companies are built entirely on search engine optimization (SEO) , and companies spend billions of dollars annually developing their sites in Google search . But the problem is that this is a somewhat competitive area: you and your opponents use the same tactics. But if the platform, in this case Google , supports a single filter and serves biased content, the opponent won't stand a chance. There is no longer any question about the competition.
I have participated in congressional hearings on several occasions and have spoken about the risks posed by Google . Has this somehow affected the government's approach to regulation?
There were no real changes. But under Trump, lawsuits have begun against Facebook , and to a greater extent against Google . Biden has been serving as President of the United States for several months, and the investigation is still ongoing. But I can assume that it will pay off. Biden is a Democrat, and the Democrats have strong support from Google. Silicon Valley companies like Facebook and Google donate huge sums to Democrats. They know it and won't bite the hand that feeds them.
Essay on organizational capture and other games played by big companies. It is a very old phenomenon in which companies are involved in the development of legislation or regulations, and in the end, companies only benefit from these innovations. This is now happening with Google and the US government.
Google operates a business model based on monitoring. People use the services thinking they are free. Google collects huge amounts of personal data and makes more than $100 billion a year selling it.
Google is just a clever way to collect personal information, and a tool to spy on people.
Now Google and Facebook are actually trying to "force" the sale of two companies they don't particularly care about. Google buys new companies every week. As a result, they will make billions of dollars.
But the three major threats they pose to democracy and humanity will not go away. This is surveillance, control and manipulation.
Do you think that defeating the IT giants can lead to at least some results?
Defeating these companies will not get you anywhere. I think this is a waste of time and effort. We must follow the path of protecting users.
For example, you can block a business based on people monitoring. Apple chief Tim Cook just described this business model as intimidating. He believed that such things should be prohibited.
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