Apple browser Safari suggesting conspiracy theories, BuzzFeed reports

Apple CEO Tim
Cook.
Scott Olson/Getty
Images

• Apple has removed suggested search results from Safari
  after it pointed BuzzFeed to websites containing debunked
  conspiracy theories.
• The “Siri Suggested Websites” autocompletes a search
  and recommends a website or a video for the user to click
  on.
• It took BuzzFeed to a Holocaust denier page and video
  results on the QAnon conspiracy theory.

Apple has removed a bunch of suggested search results from Safari
after its web browser pointed users to websites containing
debunked conspiracy theories, such as the Holocaust being faked.

BuzzFeed discovered that Safari
was surfacing questionable results through its “Siri Suggested
Websites,” which autocompletes a search and recommends a
website or a video for the user to click on.

It is a problem that has plagued Google, which offers
autocompleted search results that at times point users to
inappropriate content from around the web.

BuzzFeed keyed in a number of popular conspiracy theories and
found that Siri Suggested Websites offered to take it to sites or
YouTube videos containing questionable information.

Search terms that delivered dodgy results included “the Holocaust
didn’t happen,” which suggested a Holocaust denier page on
666ismoney.com, and “QAnon is real,” which suggested a YouTube
video titled “The Calm Before the Storm – QAnon Is the Real
Deal.”

An Apple spokesman pointed Business Insider to a statement it
provided BuzzFeed, in which it said it had removed the bad
results from Safari. Here’s the statement in full:

“Siri Suggested Websites come from content on the web and we
provide curation to help avoid inappropriate sites. We also
remove any inappropriate suggestions whenever we become aware of
them, as we have with these. We will continue to work to provide
high-quality results and users can email results they feel are
inappropriate to [email protected].”