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Horrible idea.

The last thing I want is a bunch of SV SJW's having an official capacity to manipulate people.

> The last thing I want is a bunch of SV SJW's having an official capacity to manipulate people.

The "official capacity" here is called freedom of speech. Is that really what you object to when it is extended to people you don't agree with, or do you object to them having the resources to make effective use of that freedom?

The more you tighten your grip, the more rare pepes will slip through your fingers.
So instead of showing recommended videos to try and increase their profit they are trying to show videos to influence other's political/social opinions.

I'd argue that one of these is rather unexpected and is yet another case of a tech company acting in the media/journalism space and not as a telecom/service provider.

If their products are used for recruiting violent extremists, that could hurt profits in a number of ways (bad PR, government regulation, etc). Sounds like a win-win.
Typo in your title...you mean extremists (missing the r)
In other words, Google's censorship program. For the 21st century. Behold!
Censorship? Not really. You were close though, it's targeted propaganda.
The quantity of propaganda will be so large that it will drown out all other content. This is already happening with CTR shills being paid to spam Twitter, Reddit, and 4chan with anti-Trump propaganda. What is this if not censorship via non-traditional means?

http://archive.is/IxsAt

Google's propaganda program. It's OK because they're terrorists, and if you don't agree you're the terrorist.

I imagine that this has always been part of the roadmap of Google's cosy relationship with the us gov

Well put mate. It's just too convenient to experiment/develop manipulation of people's perception of reality in such a context (ISIS). Who can complain about it without risking being called a which, oops, a terrorist?
> Google's propaganda program.

Advertising and propaganda are different words for the same thing. This is not Google's only program in that space.

Very interesting. I was wondering when the internet would get some smart propaganda. Never thought it'd come through third-party cookies but it makes sense given the pervasive networks. Their identifiers are as powerful as SSNs at this point.

Screw ISIS and abortion-center bombers obviously, but how far will this be taken? How great would it be if a climate group changed all the ads on a republican website to point to facts? What if the opposite occurred? =/ In the end this is a worrisome capability. Luckily, Google promises to do no evil! (/s)

We've officially reached the point that if I check out some crazy conspiracy theories I'm on an (advertising) targeting list.

Yep! Now they have an excuse to target you for the crime of... curiosity.
Satiate your curiosity while you still can!

www.chemtrailsaredemonic.org

The only way I can think that this can backfire, is that this in itself is the type of conspiracy that the far-right talks about.