Earlier in the day, a Twitter handle going by the username AHappyChipmunk, stumbled upon a derogatory search query that brings Google’s search algorithm into question. According to the Twitter user, if one types “Bitches near me”, the search results on Google Maps are horrifying. The platform shows girls schools, colleges, hostels, and paying guest apartments.
Not only is this shocking because ‘bitches’ is often used as a derogatory phrase for women, but also these Google search results of schools put minors at risk.
Google, can you explain why this fuckin exists pic.twitter.com/w0eslFoVSz
— aesthetic potato (@AHappyChipmunk) November 25, 2018
The search result is outright derogatory and has understandably left the netizens furious.
The tweet caused much outrage and alarm among people, who did the search themselves and posted screenshots of the real time results that they got.
Please look into this @googlemaps pic.twitter.com/EeUfOgpnk7
— Utkarsh Mathur (@TheRealUtkarsh) November 26, 2018
This isn’t good. @IndiaMeToo @GoogleIndia pic.twitter.com/gfN5CSE3vU
— Lavanya L Narayanan (@themadrasponnu) November 25, 2018
As reported by EDTimes, it is Google’s fault to the extent that the search algorithm that Google uses seems to correlate bitches to girls.
A similar bias report came to light in July last year where many people, including Congress MP Shashi Tharoor pointed out how a Google search for ‘south Indian masala’ led to a pictures of skimpily clad women, while ‘north Indian masala’ led to photos of spices and dishes.
That’s bizarre & disgraceful. @Google @sundarpichai can you explain — & fix? https://t.co/0MSylDtAYc
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) July 7, 2017
At the time, Google had maintained that this wasn’t its fault and that Google’s search worked by learning from the keywords people use and the results they click on to predict just what people are searching for.
