Ahram Online
By Azza Radwan Sedky
Do search engines manipulate searchers? Do they steer them to see content differently? Indeed, they do, and the map of Egypt is a case in point.
In this day and age, we are never short of attaining the information we are looking for. Our queries are answered immediately by the one and only search engine, Google. As we count on it to answer all our questions, it isn’t an exaggeration to say that Google has infiltrated our lives. Many other search engines exist but Google is by far the most ubiquitous.
Undeniably Google, whether innocently or deliberately, plays a role in what we accept as a given, for isn’t Google always right? First, the innocent aspect: Google responds to a query by forwarding to the searcher the highest ranked responses to a query, and since searchers rarely go beyond the first few responses, these become the valid and acceptable answers to all queries. The choices provided become the overriding right.
Though these “choices” are innocent in appearance, they can change purchasing, voting, perception, and cognition preferences. They nudge the searcher towards compliance one way or another and alter people’s assumptions. This can be extremely dangerous as it may intentionally mislead.
The non-innocent aspect: According to the American business news website, Business Insider, Google “manipulates search results to hide controversial subjects and favor big business.” While an article in the Albert Institute of Wellesley College webpage states, “Google can present us information that is relevant—in the sense that the result is related in some way to what was searched—but not necessarily accurate.”
Egypt’s map is a case in point. I am no cartographer nor map wizard; I’m also neither a politician nor a historian, but I am a seeker of truth, and I know what I grew up with as far as the map of Egypt is concerned.
It goes without saying that the map of Egypt is ingrained in the brains of Egyptians as seen in textbooks, in maps circulated around the world, in media, and in every published source of information. It looks very clear: an almost-straight vertical line from the Mediterranean Sea heading south intersected a perfectly horizontal line, creating a 90-degree angle. This horizontal line reaches the Red Sea at the far east end. No queries exist; these are Egypt’s borders as far as the western and southern borders are concerned.
However, today, maps of Egypt available on web sites, via search engines, exhibit a dubious triangle at the east southern border. A zigzag shape crisscrossing Egypt into Sudan and Sudan into Egypt considers the Halayeb Triangle a "disputed area"; some maps allege “Area claimed by Sudan and Egypt, administered by Sudan”; while other maps give Sudan ownership over the same area. And the original map is extremely difficult to find.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, these new maps are circulating around the various search engines. Are these new maps bona fide and attested? And what about the map that Egyptians have acknowledged and accepted all along?
Bear in mind that these sites are the most renowned and official ones on maps, and people from all around the world take the data in these sites as a given and resort to them for correct information.
The unofficial but newer maps seem intentional in their pursuance of a new borderline between Egypt and Sudan. And once such maps become the dominant ones, the truth will then get fogged into oblivion.
Unless Egyptian authorities pursue this matter further and call on these search engines, Google in particular, to adhere to the original Egyptian map, the border between Egypt and Sudan will remain a thorn in the side of future generations. The onus falls on this generation, and it will be this generation’s shortcomings that caused such a dispute to come about.
If it is indeed an innocent unplanned matter that these maps are the ones that appear first, then Egypt must flood Google with the right map, a map that will rank way higher than the erroneous new map on the search lineup. Egypt will then be counteracting in the same “innocent” fashion.
If it is not very innocent, then Google must be contacted and asked to remove the maps from its bank of sources.
Google does respond to viewers’ demands. Many governments ask Google to censor certain information or remove certain content, and many a time Google complies. According to Google:
Government ask us to remove or review content for many reasons. Some requests allege defamation, while other claim that content violates local laws prohibiting hate speech or adult content… Our team assign each request a category, such as hate speech, obscenity, and defamation.
Often times, government requests target political content and government criticism. Governments cite defamation, privacy, and even copyright laws in their attempts to remove political speech from our services. Our teams evaluate each request and review the content in context in order to determine whether or not content should be removed due to violation of local law or our content policies.
As you can see from the above, removing content from Google is doable. Hence, Egypt must fight tooth and nail to have these maps withdrawn. Egyptian authorities must end this unresolved and conflicting situation by asking search engines to remove these maps and replace them with the original ones.
It may seem as though it is not a pressing issue amidst today's demands on politicians, but it is changing Egypt's borders: a dangerous outcome.
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