“Googling” your own name is hardly out of the ordinary these days. It is a great way to get privy on how you’re being published, what possibly embarrassing info future employers may stumble upon, or just passing time through a boring class.
However, it’s doubtful Republican presidential hopeful and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum will be doing this anytime soon, considering that the top search result for “santorum” is the definition of one crude sexual act not for the faint of heart, or the pages of a university newspaper.
Google with caution.
For those unaware of the senator’s dilemma, the definition was created after Santorum, a 2003 interview with the Associated Press, declared that homosexual acts “undermine the basic tenets of our society and the family,” angering the LGBTQ community, as well as sex columnist and gay rights activist Dan Savage.
Savage responded in a way that really got under Santorum’s skin; he held a contest for readers to define “santorum” with the lewdest possible sexual act.
Sure enough, the definition skyrocketed to the top result on multiple search engines, including Google, Bing, and Yahoo (which uses Bing results), well ahead of Santorum’s bid-for-presidency.
While Santorum has acknowledged this issue in the past, last week he reportedly contacted Google to remove the damaging results, according to the International Business Times.
Apparently, they said “no.”
"I suspect if something was up there like that about (Vice President) Joe Biden, they'd get rid of it. If you're a responsible business, you don't let things like that happen in your business that have an impact on the country,” said Santorum in an interview with Politico.
“To have a business allow that type of filth to be purveyed through their website or through their system is something that they say they can't handle but I suspect that's not true,” he continued.
Turns out Google responded with the expected rhetoric, noting that if the senator wanted the content removed, he should “contact the webmaster of the page directly.”
They’re making the right move here, treating Santorum like another bothersome troll or irritated parent, a reputation victory they could really use right now.
Google is currently enduring a good amount of scrutiny, with last week’s Senate antitrust meeting, where they were criticized for “rigging” search results.
Google isn’t revealing any sort of liberal agenda or anti-conservative bias by keeping santorum’s much-loathed definition.
"Google's search results are a reflection of the content and information that is available on the Web,” said Google Spokeswoman Gabriel Stricker.
They are accomplishing just that by standing their ground. This definition is something supported by millions of Dan Savage fans and LGBTQ members, as well as their supporters, nationwide.
It’s popular and widespread both due to the community, and the fact it is hilarious.
To change these search results simply because a single, homophobic senator can’t take a joke would truly be showing bias and rigging results, an image the company absolutely does not need right now.
Reach the columnist at dsydiong@asu.edu Click here to subscribe to the daily State Press newsletter.
