Facebook "kindly" completed this phrase for me before I could even finish typing the word "should." They'll be hearing from me, but word on the street is that FB employees spend less than one second on each complaint so I don't have high hopes. Facebook has become the social media platform that I use the most in order to: connect with people I know, connect with people from the past, do some of my indexing business work, do some of my musical work, keep connected with people when I am stuck at home working on an indexing deadline, disseminate blog posts, announcements of upcoming events, make plans with friends, find new playdates for my child.
And now Facebook (or their autocomplete feature) suggests that I should DIE? Really? I feel a great deal of unease about the powers-that-be in the Facebook corporation. I won't be leaving Facebook because there are wonderful people that I write to every day. It's just shocking that it came up THAT fast when I was typing to see what I'd get. Well, I got it. I "asked for it," right?
We Autistics and our allies have a LOT of work to do in this world.
Fortunately, we are on it.
An "Autistic people should" site, and a flash blog is happening. Go here for updates throughout the day and bookmark it for positive posts about what Autistic people "should" do instead of these negative search results.
http://autisticpeopleshould.blogspot.com/p/postroll.html
 |
| Autistic People Should Die- Facebook Autocomplete of the phrase "Autistic people shoul"
Here is another, more poignant screen shot, with the International Autism Acceptance Year logo behind "Autistics should die." We have a long way to go before the acceptance of autism and Autistic people is complete. Complete enough that autocomplete won't offer to exterminate us.
I learned a bit more this morning about how search engines work. So, it's more of a search engine problem than a Facebook problem. It is still pretty disturbing to see. I
think there's a larger problem, though, with the fact that one so readily gets "die"after
certain conditions. Type in "cats should" or "babies should" or something like that, and you don't get "die." Even when I
type in names of ethnic groups or "races," I am not getting "die." If I type names
of health conditions and most disabilities, after
"should" come health recommendations.
But after "people with Down
Syndrome"... guess what.
"People with Down Syndrome should die."
And, yes, it is a search engine problem,
but it is also a social problem that is being picked up
by the search engines.
So, our search engines reflect what society thinks,
or at least what society searches for.
|
Paula, no need to publish this comment but just for information purposes facebook doesn't have an internal search engine for the web, it uses the Bing search engine for web results. The auto-complete results are generated by the Bing Search Engine.
ReplyDeleteAnd on a more positive note, the word should is often accompanied by negative statements in auto-complete regardless of the noun that precedes it, even very general terms like "Women" or "Men".
If one types in Autistics do, in a google search, the first auto-complete result is Autistics do it better.:).
An even more encouraging note is that there are only 8 results on the actual phrase "autistics should die" in the entire global google environment in an actual search result and 7 out of 8 of those site discussions associated with the phrase are discussed by people identifying on the spectrum. There is only one offensive phrase identified by the general public in a you tube comment on the Big Bang Theory show. And it was reported removed because it was determined as offensive content.
And perhaps the most encouraging result is there is no result at all for the phrase "Autistics should not exist" in an actual search result anywhere on google.:).
So, it's more of a search engine problem than a Facebook problem. It's still pretty disturbing to see. I think there's a problem with that, though. Type in "cats should" or "babies should" or something like that, and you don't get "die." Even when I type in names of ethnic groups or "races," I am not getting "die." Well, I did on "white people" just now. Now I am typing in names of health conditions and disabilities, and, interestingly, after "should" come health recommendations. But after "people with Down Syndrome"... guess what. "People with Down Syndrome should die." And, yes, it is a search engine problem, but it is also a social problem that is being picked up by the search engines. So, our search engines reflect what society thinks, or at least what society searches for.
ReplyDeletePostroll for "Autistic people should..." here. Many new posts and more are being added!: http://autisticpeopleshould.blogspot.com/p/postroll.html
ReplyDeleteAs you said, Paula, it is a social problem, and obviously a search engine problem as well. I put into my Google search, "Autistic people should" and the following came up: (1) should be killed (2)should die (3)should be exterminated (4) shouldn't have children. This IS a problem!
ReplyDelete