I already knew how Google Maps was misleading people about restaurants on Google maps, pointing people to (paid a fee to Google) delivery apps rather than the actual restaurants, but I am a bit surprised that Google maps is misdirecting women looking for abortion access to fraudulent "Pregnancy Crisis Centers" run by antiabortion groups.
One wonders how money they are getting for this:
Googling “abortion clinic near me” or “abortion pill” in several U.S. states yields misleading results, according to a new report from the non-profit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).
The researchers surveyed the first page of Google search results in a select group of 13 states that have some of the strictest anti-abortion policies in the country. They found that 11% of the 445 recorded search results led to anti-abortion centers, not actual clinics offering abortion care. About a quarter of all sponsored advertisements appearing on search pages were for anti-abortion centers, as were 37% of Google Maps results.
“A surprise in particular was the maps results,” said Callum Hood, head of research at CCDH and one of the report’s contributors. “The way that Google presents these [centers] on the first page of search results is, it actually puts them under a [maps] heading such as ‘abortion clinics.’”
Anti-abortion centers purposefully capitalize on misleading and attracting people who are seeking abortion care, explained Hood. Google seems to be enabling that deception through their maps results.
I'm beginning to think that breaking up Google is not enough. It needs to be nationalized.
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