Google Apologizes For "Michelle Obama" Results 783
theodp writes "CNN reports that for most of the past week, when someone did a Google image search for 'Michelle Obama,' one of the first images that came up was a picture of the First Lady altered to resemble a monkey. After being hit with a firestorm of criticism over the episode, Google first banned the site that posted the photo, saying it could spread malware. Then, when the image appeared on another site, Google displayed the photo in its search results, but displayed an apologetic Google ad above it. On Wednesday morning, the racially offensive image appeared to have been removed from any Google Image searches for 'Michelle Obama.' Google officials could not immediately be reached for comment."
Update — 15:38 GMT by SS: A reader pointed out that this article from the Guardian says the image was de-listed simply because it was removed from the blog where it was hosted rather than by any "deliberate" action from Google.
Good Job guys (Score:5, Informative)
At the moment it suggests searching for "Michelle Obama monkey" when you search for "Michelle Obama"
Nice to hear... (Score:4, Informative)
... that Google is now being held accountable to what is available on the internet. That should take them down a peg or two.
Re:Responsible (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Well, something *has* changed (Score:2, Informative)
What makes you so sure that this comparison is racially charged?
Because likening black people to monkeys is a tried and true tactic of racist morons?
Re:Well, something *has* changed (Score:5, Informative)
Well, if you know anything about this history of racism in America, it was quite common to refer to blacks as monkeys, apes, chimps, ect. in the past.
The whole racism thing is played WAY TO FUCKING MUCH now days, but you have to be completely ignorant of history in the US to not at least see how it could be viewed as a racial attack.
If you're not American I can understand, if you are American then you're either 12, have lived in a box for all your life, or have experienced so much censorship in your life that you've never heard of it before, which is equally as sad.
Never heard the phrase 'Porch Monkey' even?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6OselVRTsM [youtube.com] ... but more on topic for the ignorant
Great scene
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=Porch+Monkey&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10 [google.com]
Re:Good Job guys (Score:3, Informative)
To be fair here (Score:3, Informative)
Re:First post (Score:5, Informative)
Looks like they did. Searching with SafeSearch off, 'michelle obama' returns relatively normal stuff, 'michelle obama monkey' shows it as the second result, and with moderate SafeSearch, 'michelle obama ape', the query _linked from the cnn article_, shows it as the first result, so it's definitely still there on Google.
The original blogger took it down. The first mirror that shot it right back in to 1st place took it down, and then it left google's page rank caching for the 'Michelle Obama' query. Are we actually sure that Google did ANYTHING here? They might have marked the image offensive, which would [I assume, I know nothing of google's search results rankings] hide it from people with strict safesearch on, and severely downrank it on moderate and no safesearch results.
Re:Well, something *has* changed (Score:3, Informative)
Didn't human beings EVOLVE from apes? Didn't blacks evolve BEFORE whites? Didn't whites evolve FROM blacks?
Yes and no. White people didn't evolve from blacks in the same way we didn't evolve from chimps, but the distant ancestors of white people lived in Africa and were almost certainly black. Just like the distant ancestors of modern black people.
Your implication that white skin is somehow more highly evolved than black skin is false, however. Neanderthals were very likely white, yet evolved before black Homo Sapiens did. It's just a matter of living in a different environment. Skin colour seems to be one of the easiest genetic traits to change through evolution.
Re:First post (Score:3, Informative)
Are we actually sure that Google did ANYTHING here? They might have marked the image offensive, which would [I assume, I know nothing of google's search results rankings] hide it from people with strict safesearch on, and severely downrank it on moderate and no safesearch results.
Good point. Deserves a point or two from anybody slinging them around, AC or not.
Racist nonsense. (Score:4, Informative)
Frankly, your entire premise here is ignorant bullshit. Going by your logic every white person is a racist, if they've only voted for white politicians like John Sidney McCain.
Re:Well, something *has* changed (Score:4, Informative)
You mean other than the fact that Google said they were contacted by the administration? It's on the "apology" page.. which is more like a "no actually, you can't sue us" information page.
Re:First post (Score:3, Informative)
You are joking, right? There were many complaints and objections to the various monkeyfied images of George W. Bush. I remember hearing one talk radio host saying that he wanted to charge the people responsible with treason.
Re:Good Job guys (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/24/michelle-obama-photo-goog_n_368760.html [huffingtonpost.com]
The apology of Google. "Sometimes Google search results from the Internet can include disturbing content, even from innocuous queries. We assure you that the views expressed by such sites are not in any way endorsed by Google. [...] We apologize if you've had an upsetting experience using Google. We hope you understand our position regarding offensive results."
Will we see more apologies in the future?
Re:First post (Score:1, Informative)
Likening Michelle Obama to a monkey is insulting her because she is black, and is therefore racist. Likening Bush to a monkey is not insulting him because he is white, and so is not racist.
You're a moron. The original picture was posted on a website dedicated to posting pictures of celebrities made to look like apes. The fact that all these white people can be ridiculed in that fashion while a black person can't is just a side effect of overcompensation for political correctness. Unless the author of the picture included something along the lines of "hur hur dum nigra looks like a munky" then any racist interpretation is necessarily brought to the table by YOU.
Re:Special Treatment for Kenyan in the White House (Score:3, Informative)
I believe in Act:9-12 talks about where followers of Jesus were first called "Christians".
Re:Stupidity is not color-blind. (Score:5, Informative)
Do not imagine for a second that the people who create images of Michelle Obama that make her look more monkey like are doing it simply because they noticed the striking similarity between humans and monkeys. They are doing it because they are racists.
They are doing it because they are racists? It appears the photo came from celebrityapes.com, and they did this same treatment to a number of famous people. http://www.somethingawful.com/d/awful-links/celebrity-apes.php [somethingawful.com]
I suppose it was racism that drove them to turn the photo of Sara Palin into an ape, right? Yep...those fucking racists, always using derogatory terms like "monkey" whenever they see a white person.
You did get one thing right....racism is still alive in this country/world, and unfortunately it will always be there, especially when people like you are right there to jump on the bandwagon and cry "racism" before you've even seen what has really happened. Good job stirring the pot up for no good reason.
miserable failure (Score:3, Informative)
Google left the "miserable failure" link to Bush's official bio at whitehouse.gov intact for years. When Obama took office they realized the link pointed to the new president's bio [wsj.com]. After years of it being okay to link to Bush the google bomb was disabled within a matter of days.
This shouldn't come as a surprise considering Eric Schmidt is a big supporter of Obama [mercurynews.com].
So don't be surprised now when a fake picture of Michelle Obama is taken down within days, but fake pictures of Sarah Palin still make the top of the list.
Re:Stupidity is not color-blind. (Score:3, Informative)
John Safran's Race Relations (2nd episode) had him not only in blackface but completely masquerading as a black person. People noticed he looked different, but everyone seemed to accept it because of what he was saying - transferring his outlook as a young jewish man and hip hop musician to the "black experience".
It was both humorous and insightful, and done with no malice whatsoever.