Is Google Censoring Islam Suggestions?

Confused about what Islam is? Join the party — it seems Google can’t figure it out either. Or, at least its search suggestion program can’t.

If you type, “Buddhism is” or “Christianity is,” Google will quickly show you suggestions for what it thinks you might be trying to type. In the former query’s case, the Google guesses “not a religion,” “wrong,” “not what you think.” Christianity gets tougher treatment with the suggestions “bullshit” and “not a religion.”

But the query “Islam is”? Not a thing comes to mind for Google to suggest. (Search results are still there, of course.)

It’s enough to get some to conclude Google is censoring itself, perhaps as a result of complaints for suggestions that one guesses are just as flattering as those for other faiths.

But Google says it’s just a software problem.

“This is a bug and we’re working to fix it as quickly as we can,” a Google spokesman told Wired.com.

The suggestion feature relies on your previous searches and searches from users globally. Google says it filters out “pornographic terms, dirty words, and hate and violence terms.”

That means it’s most likely someone at Google got a complaint, added the phrase to a list of skip words, like f**K, seeing the results as hate and violence — perhaps without even looking at suggestions for other religions.

So, “What is the ‘Islam is’” thing? We suggest “a bug,” an “affront,” “censorship,” “an attempt at international relations by a large, profit-driven advertising company,” or a “feature,” depending on your politics, religion or employer.

See Also:

• Google Spells Censorship in China
• Censorship on Tiananmen Anniversary Cripples Chinese Net
• Google Shareholders Ask Company to Counter Censorship in Foreign Countries
• Top Internet Threats: Censorship to Warrantless Surveillance
• Net Censorship Law Struck Down Again
• Why Countries Make Sites Unseen