UN Secretary Says They “Own The Science” On Climate Change And Partnered With Google To Modify Search Results
A UN official attended the WEF's event on "tackling disinformation" and said they "own the science" on climate change. According to Melissa Ruth Fleming, Google and the UN partnered up to tackle "misinformation" by modifying the search function.
The United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, Melissa Ruth Fleming, says they “own the science” on “climate change” and that they’ve been working with Google to “shift” favorable results at the top. Fleming made the comments during a WEF event on “Tackling Disinformation.”
“We partnered with Google – for example – if you google ‘climate change,’ you will get all kinds of UN resources,” she says. “We started this partnership when we were shocked to see that when we googled ‘climate change,’ we were getting incredibly distorted information right at the top. So, we’re becoming much more proactive, you know we own the science, and we think the world should know it.”
The news website Information Liberation claims Google used to have unbiased search results when looking up “climate change.” Now, when you look it up, you’ll only find “official” articles from NASA, the UN, and the World Health Organization, among others. Fleming adds that they’ve made efforts to shift the search results to show more institutions instead of the “Joe-Conspiracy-Theorist” data – a title she used for the individuals who share ‘misinformation.’
Google manipulating search results isn’t new. In 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported that Google apparently interferes with its search algorithm to change results. Google was said to suppress “sensitive” topics like abortion and immigration, as well as prioritizing larger businesses over lesser-known ones, and blacklisting certain websites. Google’s excuse for refusing to be transparent is due to operation logistics, as stated by Insider. "Extreme transparency has historically proven to empower bad actors in a way that hurts our users and website owners who play by the rules," Google spokesperson Lara Levin said.
Closing Thoughts
Major tech platforms having the ability to control information is dangerous to our society. Google’s search function is dying; it has become a form of control by only providing “approved” results to influence public opinion and beliefs. It’s a slippery slope to censorship which could ultimately lead to the silencing of the American people.
Help make Evie even better! Take the official Evie reader survey.