Google in court over race claims
The internet giant is accused of breaching rules on compiling lists of people’s ethnicity
FOUR French bodies opposed to racism are suing Google over the fact that the term juif (Jew) is automatically suggested in association with searches for certain French celebrities.
SOS Racisme, MRAP, UEJF and AIJP say that the Google Suggest feature – which comes up with suggested search terms as you start to write in the box on Google’s homepage – amounts to the “creation of what is probably the biggest Jewish file in history”.
The associations say Google has breached French rules on making files on people’s ethnicity and are raising the case in the Tribunal de Paris today. They want Google to take action so the term is no longer associated with people’s names during searches.
The lawyer representing the associations said many users of the most popular search engine were being daily confronted with the term “Jew” when searching for leading politicians and media and business personalities.
It gives people “a feeling of an omnipresence of Jews in control of France”, he said.
Notably, when we checked, the term was coming up second in the list of suggestions on typing in “Hollande” – the same for Free boss Xavier Niel or TV journalist David Pujadas.
The fact does not however necessarily mean people are Jewish; it just suggests many internet users have typed in the combination of terms.
SOS Racism president Dominique Sopo told La Croix : “It comes down to an obsession, with an antisemitical and paranoid basis, with asking oneself if such and such a personality is Jewish.”
The associations say Google should be banned from retaining in its memory banks, without express consent, personal details relating to racial or ethnic origins.
