Much could be said about the Redirect Method, but two things stand out to me. First, as a philosopher of religion, I find [Yasmin] Green\u2019s point fascinating. Regardless how one mixes the faith-and-reason cocktail, a theopolitical agenda like ISIS\u2019s is undeniably still dependent upon information. People enlist in groups like ISIS not simply out of blind hate or misdirected zeal, but because they find ISIS\u2019s description of the world reasonable and compelling. Green\u2019s wording is suggestive: in \u201carming individuals with more and better information,\u201d\u009d Google is acting on the assumption that facts may be as fatal to ISIS\u2019s success as bullets. Google\u2019s experiment rests on a perspective shared by many professors of religion; in Kofi Annan\u2019s words, \u201cEducation is peace-building by another name.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
Second, this program raises the question of precedent. Though I doubt many net neutrality advocates will rally in support of ISIS, there is reason to be leery of Google\u2019s self-appointed mission to steer users away from certain ideological stances. Given that the dream of the Internet is a pure democracy of information and opinion, do we trust Google to be the gatekeeper of theopolitical correctness? It\u2019s one thing if I search for \u201ccrayons\u201d\u009d and Google\u201d\u201dafter receiving a payment from Crayola\u201d\u201ddirects me to Crayola\u2019s website. But what about topics far more controversial than my coloring hobby? How comfortable are we with the leading search engine employing \u201ctargeted advertising campaigns\u201d\u009d on disputed religious and political matters?<\/p>\n
The dilemma is this: everyone is pro-information, but we tend to see only the information that supports our particular worldview.<\/p>\n