Google is updating its policies, removing election- related autocomplete suggestions .
In the fight against fake news, even a search engine’s autocomplete can be confusing. Ahead of the U.S. election , Google announced today that it is updating its election-related autocomplete policies , adding that it will “ remove predictions that could be construed as assumptions or statements about election participation” as well as “predictions that could be construed as promoting or undermining any candidate or political party participating in the election.”
Posts and anything else that seems to be speculation about voting methods, requirements, or the status of polling locations will also not appear. So, for example, if you type something like “Can you vote” or “Ca n’t vote” in the search box, autocomplete won’t suggest completing that statement with “ phone .”
Similarly, if you type “donate to,” political parties or candidates shouldn’t appear as suggestions. Of course, just because autocomplete doesn’t complete your query with a prediction doesn’t mean you can’t type it yourself. You can still type “Can you vote by phone” if you want, or “donate to party candidate” and get those results.
In its announcement, Google also reminded us that most of its policies onGoogle Search, designed to protect against hate speech and inappropriate predictions, are automatic. However, it also admitted that these systems are not perfect or accurate, and if some predictions get past it, it will manually enforce these policies.
This means you might still see the odd misleading autocomplete suggestion that slips past the automated filters, but Google may remove it in time.
