Google's Fake News Algorithms are Taking Effect

[MineralMan]

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2017/08/02/pers-a02.html

Google has been working on decreasing the ranking of some sites that have published fake news in the past, including Russian-influenced and alt-left political news and political sites. Here's some interesting info from one of the sites that has seen its rankings drop substantially:

Google’s new search protocol is restricting access to 13 leading socialist, progressive and anti-war web sites

New data compiled by the World Socialist Web Site, with the assistance of other Internet-based news outlets and search technology experts, proves that a massive loss of readership observed by socialist, anti-war and progressive web sites over the past three months has been caused by a cumulative 45 percent decrease in traffic from Google searches.

The drop followed the implementation of changes in Google’s search evaluation protocols. In a statement issued on April 25, Ben Gomes, the company’s vice president for engineering, stated that Google’s update of its search engine would block access to “offensive” sites, while working to surface more “authoritative content.”

The World Socialist Web Site has obtained statistical data from SEMrush estimating the decline of traffic generated by Google searches for 13 sites with substantial readerships. The results are as follows:
* wsws.org fell by 67 percent
* alternet.org fell by 63 percent
* globalresearch.ca fell by 62 percent
* consortiumnews.com fell by 47 percent
* socialistworker.org fell by 47 percent
* mediamatters.org fell by 42 percent
* commondreams.org fell by 37 percent
* internationalviewpoint.org fell by 36 percent
* democracynow.org fell by 36 percent
* wikileaks.org fell by 30 percent
* truth-out.org fell by 25 percent
* counterpunch.org fell by 21 percent
* theintercept.com fell by 19 percent

Many of these sites may look familiar to DUers, although material from most of them is not appearing on DU as often as it did in 2016 and earlier. For some reason, we're not seeing them so much these days.

[SethH]

1. I think wsws.org is a terrible source of information

an example is this article itself. Look at the data that it is commenting on, the percentages of drop in traffic. It's customary to provide a link, but certain dubious sources expect people to just take their word for it. We shouldn't, imho. We should before even discussing this article insist on whether the facts are true.

[MineralMan]

3. I agree with your assessment of wsws.org.

That site is feeling butt-hurt over Google's new ranking algorithms, which are designed to lower the rankings of sites that commonly publish fake news or heavily biased news.

I thought the list of sites that had been affected might be interesting to DUers.

[Renew Deal]

2. The only one I haven't heard of is internationalviewpoint

I believe that globalresearch has been banned here. At least it was.

[MineralMan]

4. Yes. I hadn't heard of that one, either.

The rest, though, have always been somewhat questionable as sources, based on my experience.

[Hortensis]

5. Excellent news, thanks, MM. Sites can bring their ratings right back up, of course,

simply by no longer publishing lies and badly misleading material.

Lol, not so simple, of course, when that's what people go there for.

[MineralMan]

6. Yes, they can. However, it will take some time,

and doing that probably isn't in their plans.

I recognized all but one of those sites. They were commonly quoted from and linked to by a group of DUers who are no longer participating in DU discussions, it seems.

I thought it was somewhat amusing that The Intercept was on that list. We're not seeing links to that site much any longer, really.

Those sites are not friendly to Democratic politics. Their bias was always easy to recognize.

[Hortensis]

7. Yes. I didn't recognize same one you guys didn't, and a couple I

didn't remember until I opened them. I was actually surprised by a couple, that their fake content was as high as it apparently was. Glad Goggle's finally noting and doing.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

8. If google decides to "keep them down," it's tough. I would recommend they get a new domain

name, title name and straighten up their act. Spoken as one who used to do SEO. Google also personally reviews a lot of sites and "rates" them. You do not want to link to too many of those sites too.

[Ligyron]

9. mediamatters was always one I wondered about.

I did see some reasonable points made there on occasion.