What is the Internet trying to hide from users?

In the New York Times , editorial writer Rahad Manjoo posed the question: Suppose we are looking for a famous person, an influential person in the community or a politician or an expert, then the answer is. What we get is an overall picture of the person’s life or a distorted abstract picture?

These are not new questions in the era of the Internet boom and social networks taking over the world as it is today. Of course, the answers to them will continue to change as the Internet changes.

Currently, Google prioritizes displaying its search results according to three criteria:

1. Chronological: Google focuses more on highlighting information from the present making past events more difficult to appear.

2. Following the trend of the crowd: Google will prioritize displaying news that are of great interest to users or “hot” topics.

3. By pocket: With a certain amount of money, anyone can make Google show what they want about themselves, about their organization…

Google’s search algorithm prioritizes the most recently posted content over older content, even if older content provides a more comprehensive story. Of course, no one wants to read the old news. But if we search for a person with too much media presence, the results will not be very valuable.

Try searching for Elon Musk on Google. The first result is his Wikipedia page, followed by links to social media and his company bio. And finally, articles about this tech billionaire.

At the time of writing, the trend of public opinion is towards legal actions in an attempt to undo Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, in addition to Tesla’s attempt to prevent the distribution of video clips with content. about their cars colliding with child-sized mannequins; By the time you read a Google search for the name Elon Musk, the results may have turned to other content.

But for a “controversy engine” like Elon Musk, is Google’s results with the hottest articles really helpful to searchers? What if the latest isn’t the most important?

The first three pages of search results on Google did not yield any news related to articles published in May of this year, with the content of a female SpaceX flight attendant accusing Elon Musk of committing acts of violence. sexually harassed her, after which the billionaire was fined a fine of $ 250,000 for his indecent act.

Nor is much known about Elon’s various battles with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the time Elon Musk called the man who helped rescue 12 boys trapped in a cave in Thailand. “love the green beard”.

Obviously, Elon Musk doesn’t care about this, because he knows that as long as he posts more controversial content, people will gradually forget the old content.

Things get much worse when people, or organizations, try to shape public opinion. The most realistic example can be mentioned is the recent lawsuit between actor Johnny Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard.

If you diligently scroll through Twitter, YouTube or TikTok during that time, users will find themselves flooded with memes, video clips or satirical posts about Amber Heard being a terrible person, and Johnny Depp being the real one. online!

Here we will not discuss who is right and who is wrong, because it is clear that “no snowflake is pure”, but it is easy to see immediately the direction of public opinion in the continuous appearance. repeating posts defaming Amber Heard. Posts that tend to be neutral must be searched to be seen.

The researchers pointed out that the reason for this is most likely because the platforms have been attacked by bots .

Social media platforms say they are constantly against such organized campaigns. However, their efforts are unclear and even half-baked, since bots are a type of interaction and interaction is a service that makes money for platforms, so there is little reason to really fight back. back that.

YouTube can’t be entirely blamed for not portraying a fairer, less manipulative picture of the Depp – Heard lawsuit as pro-Johnny Depp video clips attract more engagement .

Don’t put too much faith in what we read on the Internet, because there is no guarantee that this virtual space will provide the best overview of what is happening in the world. And for any story, no one can tell which is the tip of the iceberg.