Why Google Took So Long to Pull Ads From Suicide Chat Group
Google (GOOG) just pulled the advertising that ran alongside its suicide discussion groups -- yes, there are such things -- even though the company has known since at least April that ads for poisons and chemicals were being placed there by its Adwords system.
One of the groups in question is alt.suicide.methods, a usenet group in which users request "suicide partners" to help them end their lives. Here's a screen grab of a recent chat between "PJ" and "Boulevard of Death":
Google wasn't literally placing ads next to the group. Rather, its automated Adwords system triggered ads there based on search results and the contents of the page. Among the ads that showed until recently were sites offering "Sulphuric Acid. Call us free on 0800 090 ****," and "Hydrogen Sulphide. Find medical & lab equipment. Feed your passion on eBay.co.uk! www.ebay.co.uk/medical," according to the Daily Mail.
While Google can be forgiven for not knowing which ads are automatically generated on its thousands of pages and discussion boards, it has little excuse in the case of its suicide groups. Google was alerted to their existence in April, and agreed to place ads for suicide counseling hotlines next to those groups.
For some reason, no one at Google's Mountain View, Calif., HQ thought to look at what other ads were being triggered by the sites. I've argued before that this lack of common sense is built into Google's management DNA because of its preference for hiring quants, who often regard the world simply as a neutral dataset to be indexed and exploited. All information is not, however, a neutral, aggregated commodity. And there's a difference between collecting good data (what quants do) and applying good judgment to data (which is what good managers do). That judgment was missing in this case.
The revenue Google earns from suicide groups must be minimal, so the company might want to poke around and see what other dubious groups are generating ad revenue. May I suggest the company start with this teen suicide group, where Adwords is currently offering Groupons and solar power batteries.
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Image of noose by Flickr user ThisParticluarGreg, CC.