Google faced accusations of bias after labeling the pro-life film “Unplanned” as “propaganda” in its search results. The movie, which tells the story of a Planned Parenthood clinic director who becomes an anti-abortion activist, was initially listed as “drama/propaganda” in Google’s Knowledge Graph.
Kelsey Bolar of The Daily Signal highlighted the classification on Twitter, posting a screenshot of the search results. Fox News verified the screenshot. Other Twitter users compared the search results for “Unplanned” with those of left-leaning films, such as the Dick Cheney biopic “Vice” and documentaries by Michael Moore, noting that Google did not label these films as “propaganda.”
Fox News also investigated Google search results for the “God’s Not Dead” film series and documentaries by conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza. These films were also not labeled as “propaganda.”
A Google spokesperson told Fox News that its “Knowledge Graph” analyzed web content related to “Unplanned.” The spokesperson stated that a significant amount of this content described the film as propaganda, leading to the label. Google also stated that the label was placed without a universal consensus. The spokesperson added, “When we’re made aware of disputed facts in our Knowledge Graph, we work to fix the issues, as we’ve done in this case.”
Google has since updated the search results to remove the “propaganda” label. This incident sparked debate about potential bias in social media and search engine algorithms.
Prior to this incident, supporters of “Unplanned” accused Twitter of unfair treatment. They claimed that the social media platform blocked the film’s account and suppressed the film’s number of followers. The filmmakers believed that Twitter banned the account due to its conservative message. Twitter attributed the brief suspension to an error in its automated system.
Filmmakers Chuck Konzelman and Cary Solomon discussed their frustration with Twitter on “Fox & Friends.” Solomon noted the timing of the account closure on opening night. Konzelman stated that Google also refused to accept advertising for the film, citing its relation to the pro-life side of the abortion issue.
Twitter told Fox News that the page was not directly targeted but was erroneously caught in its automated system. “When an account violates the Twitter Rules, the system looks for linked accounts to mitigate things like ban evasion,” the spokesperson told us. “In this case, the account was mistakenly caught in our automated systems for ban evasion.”
Badge145.com also reported difficulties posting “Unplanned” articles to Facebook, and Google AdSense rejected their application. This raised concerns about potential censorship and bias against conservative viewpoints.
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