Lecture #3 Dr. Robert Epstein’s talk on Google

Needless to say, what Dr. Epstein talked about was scary. It is very interesting that he actually leans left and yet he is calling out Google for manipulating people to the left point of view. His data is very convincing and it is clear that he has proven that Google is working to shift election results not just in the US, but everywhere. I am sure they are influencing search results about the war in Ukraine right now. One piece of evidence that was also scary is that the people that were most aware of the bias were the ones that were most affected by it. This shows how humans have very little defense in themselves against this bias. At first I was frustrated that the university is shifting away from using Google services for everything, but now I understand that it will be good because all of the students will no longer be tracked by Google. Also, it makes more sense now too why chromebooks are becoming more and more common in schools and classrooms and why they are just giving them away basically for free. If most of the children in the US have chromebooks, think of the power Google has over their searches and their minds. Whatever bias Google chooses to push on students, that is what is going to occur.
Not only that, it is scary that Google isn’t just affecting elections in the US, but around the world. And they know it too, they are deliberately using this power. I really appreciate the work that Dr. Epstein has done and is continuing to do because it is nice to know that someone is working to stop this. Like he said, things like this have always happened since the beginning of democracy, but this is different because these companies have a monopoly on the internet and they are clearly using their power on a worldwide scale. I am planning on showing my parents the documentary film and talking to them about getting safer on the internet in general because I think this is very important for the future. Who knows how much farther Google will carry their surveillance? I hope that his tracking platforms are able to be set up and are able to track and call out Google’s influencing actions so that the US and indeed the world can retain (or just gain) the ability to make informed decisions on their own without the influence of a private company.