Google Censors Guns... Searches for Water Guns, Guns and Roses, AR-15 Come up Blank

By Jonathan Pincus February 28, 2018 at 4:56pm

Google apparently has its own idea of gun control.

The search-engine giant reportedly censored any search results related to the word “gun” in its shopping section.

Any combination of words that used the term “gun” was censored until late Tuesday, leading to completely unrelated terms being impacted as well.

The full-fledged censorship ended up docking results for terms such as “glue gun,” “Guns and Roses” and even the word “burgundy.”

While the search restriction was eventually lifted for the word late Tuesday, the term “AR-15” and “revolver” appear to still be suppressed, according to Breitbart News.

Some took to Twitter to express their frustration with the search engine’s decision to censor words with “gun” in it and provide examples of how the stunt turned out.

Google shopping now blocks all search queries with the English word "gun" in it, which can be something of an issue as you can imagine. pic.twitter.com/NL4V00y079

— Best Mom Eva (@mombot) February 27, 2018

https://twitter.com/Lord_Vulkan101/status/968363996742111233

So @Google is literally blocking any shopping term that includes “gun”, anywhere in it.

Includes gunk, shogun, laguna… all terms that sure, have “gun” in the name, but have absolutely nothing to do with the weapon. pic.twitter.com/5BJOgNGEUR

— That Girl (@ThatGirlOpinion) February 27, 2018

https://twitter.com/nickmon1112/status/968519790599041024

In an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, contributor Philip Wegmann noted that Google can do as they please since they are a private company.

Do you think Google's attempt to censor the word "gun" from its shopping list will prevent future mass shootings from occurring?

However, he noted that the effort is ineffective, pointing to a 2013 piece by The Washington Post that revealed purchasing firearms on the internet is extremely difficult.

Wegmann concluded his piece by stating that Google’s “war on the gun was really quite silly and pointless.”

“The virtue-signaling stunt only exposed their own stupidity,” he added.

While Google’s recent attempt at gun censorship may appear to be a surprising one, it isn’t the first time the company has attempted to ban gun-related searches.

In 2012, Google notified merchants that they would not allow them to list firearms or firearm-related items on their shopping list, according to a 2012 report from Search Engine Land.

The letter Google sent to various merchants stated that they would “begin to enforce a set of new policies for Google Shopping in the coming weeks,” that included a list of prohibited products such as “guns, ammunition and knives.”

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