Prior to July 18, a Google search for the term “lesbian” produced a list of porn site pages among the top results delivered by the search engine which is used for about 90 percent of all online searches. But although Google rarely publicizes changes to its top-secret search algorithm, sources are reporting that the company appears to have made a change to the search result formula that has had the effect of mostly eliminating porn from the top pages returned by a search for “lesbian.”
The change was first noted the French site Numerama, which noted that, “it was a mistake by Google, but an error now corrected. As of July 18, 2019, the word 'lesbian' no longer refers to pornographic results.”
Numerama opined that the issue was not simply about filtering out porn, and charged that the results were part of “a dangerous sexualization of women's bodies, which is a vector of criminal behavior far beyond the web,” going on to note the example of a lesbian couple in June who were badly assaulted by a gang of four men on a London bus after they refused the men’s demand that they kiss.
The French site began investigating the Google algorithm after Google’s own Pride Month banner appeared over porn search results. The banner also ceased to appear in search results for “lesbian,” with no explanation offered by Google, according to Pink News. President of Search Engine Quality Pandu Nayak acknowledged to Numerama that Google had had problems with search results for the term “lesbian” and other LGBTQ-linked search terms.
"I find these results terrible, there is no doubt about it," Nayak told the site. "We're aware that there are problems like this, in many languages and different searches. We have developed algorithms to improve this research, one after the other.”
Currently, a Google search for “lesbian” returns no porn results. The top result instead is a Hollywood Reporter article about Batwoman, a lesbian comic book character.
Photo By Enrique Dans / Wikimedia Commons
