Google’s Definition of Verb ‘Jew’ as to ‘Bargain in Miserly Way’ Stirs Outrage

Google searchAfter apparently having remedied the issue, Google’s search engine now offers a dictionary excerpt defining “Jew” as “a member of the people and cultural community whose traditional religion is Judaism and who trace their origins through the ancient Hebrew people of Israel to Abraham.”Google came in for a barrage of criticism on December 27 after its search engine offered, by default, a top result definition of “jew” in lowercase as meaning “to bargain with someone in a miserly or petty way.”The result also included an “offensive” label, with the tech giant adding that the origins of the term were rooted in 19th century stereotypes “associating Jewish people with trading and moneylending.”To reach an uppercase definition pertaining to ethnicity or religion, one needed to click a button and scroll through more entries. © Photo : TwitterTwitter screenshot of Google search result.Twitter screenshot of Google search result.A screenshot of the definition was extensively shared on social media, and branded “offensive” and antisemitic by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and numerous other Jewish groups.© Photo : TwitterScreenshot of Twitter account of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).Screenshot of Twitter account of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

"Deeply troubling that Google artificial intelligence fails to recognize obvious antisemitic hate speech in featured search results for the term 'Jew'. We expect corrective action to be taken immediately,” the World Jewish Congress said.

Google appeared to quickly fix the issue, with its search engine now offering a dictionary excerpt defining “Jew” in uppercase as “a member of the people and cultural community whose traditional religion is Judaism and who trace their origins through the ancient Hebrew people of Israel to Abraham.”The American multinational technology company also offered an apology, with its Google Search Liaison account underscoring on Twitter that the search engine “licenses definitions from third-party dictionary experts.”

"We only display offensive definitions by default if they are the main meaning of a term. As this is not the case here, we have blocked this & passed along feedback to the partner for further review," stated Google’s SearchLiaison tweet.

© Photo : TwitterScreenshot of Google’s SearchLiaison Twitter account.Screenshot of Google’s SearchLiaison Twitter account.Viral What is the Most Googled Word of Year 2022?8 December, 12:31 GMT

Source