Incident 88: "Jewish Baby Strollers" Provided Anti-Semitic Google Images, Allegedly Resulting from Hate Speech Campaign
Entities
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CSET Taxonomy Classifications
Taxonomy DetailsFull Description
In October 2020, Google images showed anti-semitic images of a portable oven when a user searches "Jewish baby stroller" due to anti-semitic online groups tagging these anti-semitic images with the tag "Jewish baby stroller." Google claims this is a result of 'voids of information' or the algorithm being unable to decipher the image and relying on the images' tags.
Short Description
In October 2020, results for "Jewish baby stroller" on Google Images showed anti-semitic images as a result of organized online targeting by anti-Semitic online groups.
Severity
Minor
Harm Distribution Basis
Religion
Harm Type
Psychological harm
AI System Description
The Google image algorithm uses image recognition and appended text or tags to classify images.
System Developer
Sector of Deployment
Information and communication
Relevant AI functions
Perception, Cognition, Action
AI Techniques
supervised learning, open source
AI Applications
image recognition, image classification, recommendation engine
Location
Global
Named Entities
Google Images, Google, raid
Technology Purveyor
Google, raid
Beginning Date
10/2020
Ending Date
10/2020
Near Miss
Harm caused
Intent
Deliberate or expected
Lives Lost
No
Data Inputs
images, tags, appended texts, user input
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
(JTA) — The Google results are shocking: Do an image search for “Jewish baby strollers” and you’ll see row upon row of portable ovens — an offensive allusion to the Holocaust.
Google says it’s looking into the search results and wants to im…
The anti-Semitic movement has been on the rise coordinated by an online group named ‘raid’. They operate by manipulating the google image search engine results by attaching abusive images tagged with innocent keywords which in turn, shows t…
