分析三大搜索引擎对2020大谎言的报道呈现，发现阴谋内容多源于泛化查询而非激进关键词。
Googling the Big Lie: Search Engines, News Media, and the US 2020 Election Conspiracy
- 通过大规模算法审计比较谷歌、必应和duckduckgo在三地的搜索结果差异。
- 简单否认是主流反驳策略，但鸭鸭和必应常推送支持阴谋论或未反驳的内容。
- 阴谋内容主要来自无意识形态倾向的泛化查询，而非特定激进关键词。
2020年美国总统选举舞弊的阴谋论——大谎言——在选举后数月仍持续占据媒体议程。搜索引擎如何优先呈现那些彻底驳斥、简单否定或支持该阴谋论的新闻，对于理解公众在该议题上的信息接触至关重要。我们通过大规模算法审计，评估了三个搜索引擎（谷歌、DuckDuckGo、必应）在三个地区（俄亥俄州、加利福尼亚州、英国）使用十一个搜索词的结果差异。结果显示，简单否定是所有搜索引擎中占比最大的驳斥策略。尽管谷歌对明确聚焦‘大谎言’的文章具有显著主流化效应，提供详尽驳斥与替代解释，但DuckDuckGo和必应则在不同地区表现出大量支持阴谋论或未能有效驳斥的内容。最后，我们发现，针对特定意识形态驱动的关键词（如“亚利桑那州记号笔选票”）并未导致更多支持阴谋论的材料；相反，支持阴谋论的内容主要源自更广泛的、非意识形态导向的搜索词（如“2020选举舞弊”）。
原文摘要 · Abstract (English)
The conspiracy theory that the US 2020 presidential election was fraudulent - the Big Lie - remained a prominent part of the media agenda months after the election. Whether and how search engines prioritized news stories that sought to thoroughly debunk the claims, provide a simple negation, or support the conspiracy is crucial for understanding information exposure on the topic. We investigate how search engines provided news on this conspiracy by conducting a large-scale algorithm audit evaluating differences between three search engines (Google, DuckDuckGo, and Bing), across three locations (Ohio, California, and the UK), and using eleven search queries. Results show that simply denying the conspiracy is the largest debunking strategy across all search engines. While Google has a strong mainstreaming effect on articles explicitly focused on the Big Lie - providing thorough debunks and alternative explanations - DuckDuckGo and Bing display, depending on the location, a large share of articles either supporting the conspiracy or failing to debunk it. Lastly, we find that niche ideologically driven search queries (e.g., "sharpie marker ballots Arizona") do not lead to more conspiracy-supportive material. Instead, content supporting the conspiracy is largely a product of broader ideology-agnostic search queries (e.g., "voter fraud 2020").
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