Moral Search Engines-A Squeaky Clean Internet Experience!
I came across an article on Yahoo News recently, about so-called "moral" search engines, aimed at providing religious internet users with a way to filter out potentially offensive content. At first, this story elicited nothing more than a roll of the eyes and an amused chuckle but, after giving it more thought, and after actually running some searches, I am no longer laughing. Because, to some extent on all of these search engines, "offensive" seems to mean any information that would challenge a person to acknowledge the existence of contradictory worldviews outside of a very small echo chamber.
Of course, trying to filter out undesirable internet content is nothing new. I feel for parents who have younger children who surf the web. We all know that there are dangerous predators out there, along with the ubiquitous pornographic content that can pop up on the most innocent Google search. There is nothing wrong with trying to keep one's children safe and to make sure that they are not exposed to explicit sexual material. I don't have a problem with internet search engines that are geared towards children, as long as parents know when their children are developmentally ready to handle the internet at large.However, when dealing with adults, it disturbs me that some might find it necessary to use a special search engine in order to be directed to information that serves only to confirm their beliefs.
The Yahoo article quotes Michael Gartenberg, a partner at a technology research firm:
You have an emerging generation and emerging culture that wants to take advantage of technology...search engines and the things that they provide but at the same point, to be true to their heritage...and not stray from their belief system.
To which I say: If your heritage and belief system are that fragile, perhaps you should just stay off the internet!
We can't (or shouldn't be able to) have it both ways here. Internet technology has opened up unimaginable realms of information to the average person. We can browse the Library of Congress or the Smithsonian. We can communicate with people halfway across the country or halfway around the world. And, yes, we run the risk of encountering information that may be contrary to our beliefs. However, as sentient beings equipped with critical thinking skills, we should be able to deal with situations like this without going off the deep end.
The article cited three search engines, geared toward Christian, Jewish or Muslim internet users. I have gone the extra mile for you and checked out two in detail. (I have left out detailed information on Jewogle, the search engine for Jews, even though it definitely has the coolest name, as I did not want this post to become completely unwieldy. However, I did run some searches on Jewogle, and found that it fell somewhere between the other two in terms of the volume and content of results.)
I'mHalal is the Muslim search engine (the word "halal" means lawful). Its founder, Reza Sardeha, says:
We think that the other search engines are way too "main street" oriented. We wanted to provide a solution to explore the Web in a safe environment, where you won't bump into explicit content or immoral websites, like pornography.
Again, we're talking about adults here. I understand that pornography is frowned upon in Islam. But is the answer to pretend that it doesn't exist because it doesn't appear when using I'mHalal? Waxing philosophical, I need to ask: Is the absence of temptation the same thing as resisting temptation? Is the person who is never tested as holy as the person who passes the test? Or even the person who fails the test but tries to do better the next time?
SeekFind is the Christian search engine, based in that most evangelical of Christian cities, Colorado Springs, Colorado. According to information on the website, the search engine functions by:
...only indexing websites that are Biblically-based, theologically sound, and in agreement with our statement of faith. That way, you can have confidence that you will find content which will be God-honoring and spiritually encouraging.
I decided to find out exactly what this looks like in practice, and ran searches using identical terms on both search engines.
Searching for "Barack Obama", I'mHalal returned 26,383,245 results, the first of which were barackobama.com, his Facebook and MySpace pages, his listing in Wikipedia, the link to whitehouse.gov, and an article from The Guardian. I suppose the most shocking news here is that Barack Obama actually still has a MySpace page (but it has been over a week since he last logged in.)
Using that same search term on SeekFind returned 82 results, links to articles from obscure websites and blogs, with titles like Is Barack Obama the Anti-Christ?, Barack Obama on When Life Begins and Partial Birth Abortion, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama - The Gay Lifestyle, and Barack Obama's Twisting of the Scriptures.
A search for "masturbation", a hot topic lately thanks to the GOP Senate candidate from Delaware, returned 360 results on I'mHalal and 285 on SeekFind. As you can guess, both search engines returned results that were not exactly favorable to the act of self love. However, I did learn that having a wet dream during Ramadhaan does not adversely affect one's fast. Also interesting was the fact that more than a few of the search results from SeekFind linked to articles from Probe Ministries (probe being a very appropriate word when talking about masturbation, don't you think?), one featuring a letter from a man who is in the military, and who asked if masturbation is OK if he is separated from his wife for long periods of time. (Short answer: "No".)
"Evolution" returned 44,700,833 results on I'mHalal, with most of the top results coming from places like Wikipedia or science-oriented websites. There were a few creationist links there as well, just as there are when you run a search on Google. SeekFind returned 8,699 results, the first reading like a scientific paper, slowly but surely revealing its bias and coming around to concepts like irreducible complexity and intelligent design. Many other results linked to articles from "icr.org", which is the Institute for Creation Research, and had titles like The Scientific Case Against Evolution, Evolution is Religion - Not Science, and The Vanishing Case For Evolution.
"AIDS" returned 34,900,620 results on I'mHalal, with at least the first several pages of results linking to reputable scientific and medical information websites. (However, I will note that, searching "homosexuality" or "gay marriage" on I'mHalal, one is pretty much directed to the Islamic party line condemning such things.) SeekFind returned 336 results, with more obscure websites linking to pieces like AIDS: The Ripened Fruit of the Sexual Revolution and Is the AIDS Epidemic God's Judgment on the Gay Liberation Movement? (And a website called raptureready.com helpfully recommends to someone who has just discovered he has AIDS that he turn his life over to Jesus. No mention of seeking medical treatment.)
"Feminism" returned 3,002,655 results on I'mHalal, with links to Bitch Magazine and Feminist e-Zine, among others. I also found an article called Feminism Is Evil! from the website jesus-is-savior.com, which stood out a little for its wackiness, but which also comes up on a Google search. SeekFind returned only 152 results, with many being links, once again, to Probe Ministries (which must have a financial interest in SeekFind, or vice versa), with titles such as Ten Lies of Feminism, Feminist Myths, and Neopaganism, Feminism and the New Polytheism.
And last but not least, "Lady Gaga" returned 35,764,820 results on I'mHalal, with links to all of the usual suspects, including her own website, MTV, YouTube and People.com, while SeekFind came back with "No results found containing all search items." The closest it came was the Lady of Fatima and Lady and the Tramp. (For the record, Jewogle didn't return any results either.) I don't know about you, but I think that any search engine that doesn't recognize the term "Lady Gaga" is just a little bit suspect.
Aside from its intolerance regarding sexual issues ("oral sex", for example, returned no search results) I was surprised that many search results on I'mHalal were somewhat comparable to what you might find using Google or Yahoo, in terms of both number of results and sources represented. I must admit that I was expecting a lot worse. (Of course, Google does return a higher number of results, but if you're like me, you never really look past the first million or so anyway, right?)
SeekFind, on the other hand, returned pitifully few results for most searches, and the results it did list were from what can rightfully be characterized as fringe websites, with no deviation from the evangelical playbook. (More highlights include a search for "Catholicism", with the first result being an article titled Is Catholicism a Cult?, and a search for "The Beatles", where the first link was to a review slamming A Hard Day's Night, saying that "some of the songs are well-written in a technical sense" but that The Beatles "were one of the greatest disasters to ever hit the western world".)
I don't think that Jewogle, I'mHalal or SeekFind are going to surpass, or even come anywhere close to equaling, the most popular search engines, in terms of usage. And I realize that these search engines are not engaging in government-sponsored censorship, as their users are participating voluntarily.
But what I find troubling is (1) that someone even perceived a need for this in the first place, and (2) that people might be so afraid of having their beliefs challenged that they would willingly submit to being spoon-fed information that is, at best, narrow in scope or, at worst, bigoted and hateful.
The whole point of the internet is a free and open exchange of ideas (as well as LOLcats and viral YouTube videos). A search engine that so severely limits the type of information available to a user seems to me to be very nearly the electronic equivalent of book burning.
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Comments
Who is filtering this information to the "Believer/Followers" and how sinister could that be?
the christianists are scary.
And to answer your philosophical question as to whether the absence of temptation is the same as resisting it: of course not. For those who believe in the bible, it's supposedly one of the reasons Christ came in the flesh and THE reason why he went into the desert for 40 days to "be tempted of the devil". It's also pretty well accepted in believer circles that the Christ didn't exactly have his name on a pew at the local synagogue. He seems to have hung out with all sorts of "unsavory" people. And yet, they say, he remained sinless. But here, or modern christianists want to remove temptation altogether. They have moved SO far away from Christ and his teachings it's unrecognizable. And YET its the islamists who they say are nuts. Nice hypocrisy there "christ-followers".
Willie, I'm sure your search engine is a lot more fun!
Linnnn, yes a cocoon. Or a bubble. I think it's dangerous when any group shuts itself off like this. (Actually, I think it would make a good satire piece to speculate on search results that would come up on search engines for different groups.)
Robin, exactly. You're a human being with a brain and critical thinking skills. You can handle being challenged. I can't imagine being so fearful that I would need a special search engine!
Maddie, I agree with your answer to my philosophical question. It is written that Christ was tempted - I wonder what the SeekFind folks would have to say about that. And the so-called Muslim search engine was much more reasonable than the evangelical Christian one. Interesting.
Thanks all, for reading and commenting.
In Tibet, apparently if you use Chinese google to search for "Dalai Lama", every single return is a site that tells how he is a charlatan and a fake and evil etc. No objective info whatsoever.
We are lucky I guess, to have our porn and dare I say it... internet spam.
I am constantly biting my tongue when hearing how the young people of today are so good with computers and technology ... simply, and completely, untrue. Just as before it is quite rare to meet anyone who understands technology outside of a tech conference, what most young people do is put themselves at one risk or another, as if they were just passively watching TV.
However, there are degrees of truth in the Wisdom of the Crowds theory ... when you see Wikipedia as the 1st search result for 90% of everything, then you NEVER see "Conservapedia" at the top ever, for anything, it shows most people are not stupid at all, but most Status Quo dreamers are, in a word, dumb.
On the one hand, provable facts. On the other, "beliefs". Facts were rejected instantly and easily.
That's why stories like this really frighten me. (R) especially for sharing something I should have known existed, but didn't.
There's another obvious question: Why can't they just use Google and then not click on the results that they don't want to read? But oh, of course, they might make a "mistake" and click on something that would contradict their beliefs. And as you say, if your beliefs are that fragile....
In fact, just choosing to blog here rather than elsewhere because of that affinity for likeminded persons is a similar moral filter and statement for most here, I think. Likewise of course for bloggers of the right in making a choice to do their blogging where mostly right wingers will see and post. And the same is true in the choices of news sources for many or most. I'm constantly being accused of watching too much Fox news by left wingers who assume that that is where I get my opinions from and where I confine my research to as well, apparently. But actually I don't. I prefer to seek out what others are saying, and in fact have never had cable so don't even get Fox news other than what comes over the public access channels. And this is my only blog site. As for the actual search engines you've learned of and researched, I'm not surprised to learn that they exist. You've done a good job researching them.
"R"
rated.
"I don't have a problem with internet search engines that are geared towards children"
SeekFind is obviously geared towards children aka Kindergarten Kristians, people who have not progressed intellectually, philosophically or theologically beyond what they were taught as five-year-olds
Well, if these search engines are going to exist, I hope they design one that filters out links to fulminating religious nutters of all stripes.
Suzanne, yes fun and annoying in equal measure. Mostly fascinating, though. I think I could spend all my time searching the dusty little corners of the internet. As for Chinese Google, that is indeed a frightening thing. So I think you are right that we are fortunate. I guess spam is one of the costs of freedom!
Rob, you are correct about the way SeekFind operates. You have to submit sites for inclusion, and they have to be approved by the powers that be, whoever those powers are. (From the "Submit" section of their website: "Please note, we do not guarantee that we will add the site, only that we will review it and prayerfully consider adding it to our index.")
Bonnie, thank you, as always, for your support and encouragement.
oahusurfer, I definitely count myself as one of those "non-geek-a-zoids! And you're right, there is a reason that Wikipedia shows up instead of Conservapedia. And it's not because Wikipedia has a "liberal bias"! It's because it has been found to be fairly accurate (although it is always advisable to check other sources when doing research).
LateAgain, that anecdote about your sister-in-law is a perfect illustration of this phenomenon. And, hey, I stumbled on this whole thing by accident, so don't feel bad that you didn't know about it! I think what I've learned, though, is that whatever completely weird thing you can think of, chances are that it exists on the internet.
Don, I'm glad you thought so!
Nelle, but don't you know that those evil liberals and humanists are always trying to foist their beliefs stealthily on the unsuspecting Christian, Jew or Muslim? An innocent-looking link might just be responsible for condeming that person to eternal damnation! I can't imagine living in that kind of fear.
Henry, I take your point about all of us having our own "filters". I'll say for myself (and I'm sure that this sentiment would be echoed by many others) that I would not be the slightest bit interested in a "liberal search engine", if such a thing existed. (You must also remember that, if you post something that is contrary to popular opinion on OS and get few readers, well, lots of people don't get very many readers here. It's a very crowded place. It might not necessarily be a reflection on your viewpoint.) As for choosing to blog on OS, that choice was influenced just as much by the ease of use and the somewhat "built-in" audience, as by the political leanings of the participants.
nolalibrarian, your comment made me laugh! You know, I honestly don't know if these search engines have image, blog or shopping searches. I suspect that they don't.
More later...
femme forte, I agree that SeekFind can hardly be called a search engine, but that is what it calls itself. Anyone who would use such a "search engine" must live a very limited and fearful life.
Tom, I can't disagree with that. I know that Jesus supposedly said that we must become like children to enter the kingdom of heaven, but I don't think this is what he meant!
Cindy Ross, you know your Bible! That is exactly where they got their name. But I think your name is more accurate.
Various Artists, thanks. A search engine that filters out nutty religious links? Hmmm, sounds like a plan!
Naughty Boy, if I'm understanding you correctly, I agree that, ultimately, search engines like this won't stop the spread of knowledge - just as book burnings don't prevent people from reading the books that were burned. Still, I think we always have go be on guard against such things.
Steve, depending on who you ask, the different treatment of Barack Obama on I'mHalal might just mean that he really is a secret Muslim!
Henry, yes it was curiosity that drove me to check out these particular websites. And out of curiosity again, I just did a Google search using "christian search engine" as the search term. Surprisingly (or not), there are several.
I mean, I can't tell you how often I have been challenged in my viewpoints by something I found online. I think the advent of the internet is a turning point in the history of the world, and that someone, or some group, would want to stifle this, is just incomprehensible to me.
As one who prefers non-fiction, informative material, you make my stay at OS worthwhile.