Is Google censoring their autocomplete to avoid offending the religious?

Me and my roommate found this little quirk on Google, and it's gotten me a bit mad. Google has generally lived-up to their "do no evil" mantra, but if what we found was done on purpose, I have lost some respect for the company...

They appear to be filtering their auto-complete to avoid listing religions with negative adjectives. I will be listing some potentially offensive queries, but this is simply to make a point.

Let try three basic Google search result counts (unscientific):

"Stupid Christian" = 73,300,000 Results (without quotes) / 90,900 (with quotes)

"Stupid Muslim" = 36,500,000 (without quotes) / 66,300 (with quotes)

"Stupid Atheist" = 8,040,000 (without quotes) / 17,300 (with quotes)

These result counts seem to suggest that, according to Google, the internet considers Christians to be between 525-911% stupider than Atheists, and 137-200% stupider than Muslims. I could list more comparisons, but you guys probably know how to divide...

OK, now lets see how quickly Google auto-complete will suggest this entries. Remember, there are MILLIONS of more results for "Stupid Christian" and "Stupid Muslim" than "Stupid Atheist":

"Stupid Christian" = NEVER SUGGESTED (Typed all the way up to "Stupid Christia"

"Stupid Muslim" = NEVER SUGGESTED (Typed all the way up to "Stupid Musli"

"Stupid Atheist" = "Stupid At" (Already gives me "Stupid Atheist" as the 2nd suggestion, and "Stupid Atheist Quotes" -- 2,340,000 results -- as the 5th suggestion)

What gives Google? There are WAY more results for other (stupid) religions, but you won't even consider that that was what I was searching for, but "Stupid Atheist" is right along side "Stupid Athletes" (14,800,000 results).

I observed nearly the exact same trend when substituting "stupid" for:

"Evil" (with the exception of "Evil Christ", which is a German metal band)

"Violent" (according to Google, barely anyone is searching for "Violent Muslim"; go figure...)

"Amoral"

However, there were a few terms that brought up religious terms with them:

"Disgusting"

"Ignorant"

"Blasphemous" ("Christian" and "Muslim" came up much quicker than "Atheist"; ironic!)

Is Google intentionally filtering their auto-complete to avoid offending the religious? Is religion untouchable? Is this blatant censorship? FROM GOOGLE?!

Maybe, but the auto-complete suggestions for "Christians/Muslims/Atheists Are"... suggests that people don't think too kindly of religion on the Internet...

Before I assume this is intentional censorship by Google, what do you guys think?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mr. Anderson on June 2, 2011 at 11:39am

That's pretty crazy. Google do things well, so for that to be a 'bug' would be highly unlikely. So, to me, it seems deliberate.

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Permalink Reply by Loop Johnny on June 2, 2011 at 11:46am

We have to pressume it is deliberate. It pretty much sucks that there are "internet bubbles" forming on the internet were we get isolated from "challenging" information that might change our point of view and making us feel uncomfortable. I thought that was the point of the whole internet phenomena.

Any way, Google will have to censor out things like porn, violent and disturbing images or else he might loose market. That's the way it goes.

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Permalink Reply by Alexander Vranas on June 2, 2011 at 12:48pm

Google has NEVER censored porn. "Safesearch" is set to "moderate" by default, but turn that setting off and you can find, probably billions of pornographic pictures and videos. (They even index streaming pornography services)

If you don't believe me, try it. If you don't want to try it, well, there is a neat little word that sums it up:

Googlewhacking!

Well, it has two definions...

1. Using google to find pornography
2. Searching google with a two-word quotation that returns EXACTLY 1 result.

Violent and disturbing images are plentiful too, but generally with the Safesearch off...

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Permalink Reply by Arcus on June 3, 2011 at 4:57pm

Whatever you do, do not Google image the word "Blue Waffle" with Safesearch off. ;)

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Permalink Reply by Chuck B. on June 4, 2011 at 2:13am

Now I have a new nickname to call assholes. THANKS!

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Permalink Reply by Eric Wichman on June 4, 2011 at 7:17am

Dude, I was eating! ;) that was so not cool.

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Permalink Reply by AntiChristianLeague on June 4, 2011 at 10:33pm

Now I have an intense desire to look up "blue waffle" on google.

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Permalink Reply by AntiChristianLeague on June 4, 2011 at 10:37pm

Oh...wow....That was a bad idea..

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Permalink Reply by Akshay Bist on June 4, 2011 at 10:47pm

Oh, the horrors! *Sheldon voice*

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Permalink Reply by Nathan Palo on June 3, 2011 at 11:21am

Isn't the auto-complete based on searches, not results?

If it auto-completes, it means that a lot of people have searched that term. This would make a bit more sense because you don't need to go to Google to find stupid Christians.

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Permalink Reply by David Fruits on June 3, 2011 at 11:44am

That is how I've understood it. Just means that there are quite a few religious folk out there who follow a narrow line of thinking. And, why if you type "do midg" you get the following

do midgets have night vision

do midgets have normal sized genitalia

do midgets have normal sized wieners

etc

The inmates run the asylum.