Be wary of Google Search, especially on nuclear matters

April 24, 2025, https://theaimn.net/be-wary-of-google-search-especially-on-nuclear-matters/

I’ve been meaning for a long time, to write about Google’s very pro-nuclear stance.

Then today, I found something that was both amusing and a wake-up call.

I have, for the past 16 years, run an anti-nuclear website – nuclear-news.net. Today, I typed into Google Search:

“Who owns nuclear-news.net?”

And here is Google’s answer:

The online news service at nuclear-news.net, also known as World Nuclear News (WNN), is supported by the World Nuclear Association. WNN is based within the Association’s London Secretariat. The Association is an international industry organization with a global mandate to communicate about nuclear energy.

Well fancy that! I had no idea that WNN promoted the nuclear-free cause. Well of course, it doesn’t. Interestingly one does not “own” a website name, – one licenses it from a domain names company. Even if you make up the name yourself, as I did. And I still have the license. So – poo to the WNN.

And to Google. What a sad decline in morality! They started out with that noble motto: “Don’t Be Evil”

Back in 2008, if you typed “nuclear news” into Google Search – my website would come up at or very near the top. Google’s system then prioritised its list according to two considerations:

1. That the website title accurately indicated its content.

2. The number of viewings the website receives.

That system’s gone long ago, and Google has at least had the grace to abandon its former motto. Its now motto is “Do the right thing“.

Now isn’t that an interesting motto? Sounds similar to “Don’t Be Evil” – and yet, and yet… it’s not really the same. You see “the right thing” depends on who decides between right and wrong.

For a start, in today’s zeitgeist – the culture of economic growth – the right thing is what makes the most money. Therefore, Google correctly prioritises the websites that pay Google the most in sponsorship.

But that priority leads on to other considerations. For a company like Google, well, it’s essential to keep the most powerful economic interests onside. So, the weapons companies, Western militarism, the nuclear industry, and the other polluting industries get priority. And the Gazans and other impoverished communities don’t matter much.

Anyway, as I don’t pay Google any sponsorship money, my website comes up at something like page 154 on Google S

I’m not writing this to get you to go to my website. And quite a healthy number of viewers do go there each day, anyway, without Google’s help.

The thing is – be aware of Google’s priorities. They are not interested in the facts. We all know that economic progress is more important than the truth, don’t we?

And at the same time, you might fairly accuse me of hypocrisy. I use Google Search all the time. It is tremendously useful. One just needs to be aware of the sources of information, and of Google keeping its nose clean by not too much offending the powerful and wealthy.