We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Googling ‘Welsh evil’ (or ‘BBC stupid’)

They were thrown into ecstasies of suspicion by finding we possessed a French translation of Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’. If that had been the only book they found, our doom would have been sealed. It is obvious that a person who reads ‘Mein Kampf’ must be a fascist. The next moment, however, they came across a copy of Stalin’s pamphlet ‘Ways of Liquidating Trotskyists and other Double Dealers’, which reassured them somewhat. (George Orwell, Homage to Catalonia)

The BBC has learned from Google that Welsh IP addresses are 7.2% more likely (than other UK ones) to be the origin of searches concerning Jews in conjunction with certain negative terms. Since it lists these terms, the BBC story is now a high-ranked result found by such searches – or so I assume (I have not checked, lest Google record my IP address and the BBC report that Scotland has overtaken Wales). It is suggested that Google discourage these wicked Welsh googlers by not letting these combinations auto-complete.

I see no suggestion in the story that anyone contributing to it has even risen to the level of the communist secret police by e.g. correlating these queries with others from the same IP address like ‘racism evil’. (If any of the offending IP addresses also searched for ‘islamic terrorism evil’, I assume the BBC would only be the more shocked and disgusted.)

On the rare occasions when I’ve tried to imitate a Welsh accent, I often sound like I’m trying to imitate the accent of a Pakistani speaking English. I’ve been told the two accents sound similar because a high proportion of the governesses who tutored children of natives from the Indian subcontinent in the days of the Raj were Welsh. (I have no idea why that should be so or whether it is true.) If the BBC harbours the least suspicion that some of the searchers are studying anti-semitism with a view to opposing it, or that the accent of others might indeed sound Pakistani, it does not mention it.

9 comments to Googling ‘Welsh evil’ (or ‘BBC stupid’)

  • Paul Marks

    Yes indeed Niall.

    The BBC obsess about mythical threats to the Jews (such as the rise of a Welsh Hitler) and totally ignore the real threat to Jews – Islam.

  • bobby b

    I live very close – five miles away? – to Minnesota’s Fifth Congressional District. Given that those voters elected the execrable Ms. Ilhan Omar – of pro-Hamas, anti-Israel, Jew-hater fame – I would imagine that that district must also score very high on this index.

    I’d dearly love to get hold of the Google report – assuming they studied all areas and not just GB – and share the stats with my Jew-hating neighbors through our local paper.

    I doubt they’d feel any actual shame, but they might come closer to understanding my contempt for them.

  • Mr Ecks

    Nice of the BBC to encourage those not already turned against it to join the ranks of those wanting that Marxist-controlled organisation shut for good.

    Keep up the good work chumps.

  • Ted Schuerzinger

    You mean the Welsh aren’t evil? 😈

    (Apologies if this shows up twice, but somehow my gmail address has wound up on a spam list, as my comments at multiple sites have been going to a void.)

    [edit: It’s actually the link to my blog that’s setting off the spam filter. I don’t know why; it’s just a blogger blog.]

  • Brian Swisher

    You mean the Welsh aren’t evil?
    —–
    “Gangs of rough, tough men, roaming the valleys, terrorizing people with their close-harmony singing…”
    -Edmund Blackadder

  • The BBC has learned from Google that Welsh IP addresses are 7.2% more likely (than other UK ones) to be the origin of searches concerning Jews in conjunction with certain negative terms.

    Are electrons Jewish?

  • Paul Marks

    Wales voted for British independence from the European Union – they must be Nazis. BBC “reasoning”.

    bobby b – the State of Minnesota voted for an Islamist to be Attorney General (to be in charge of the legal system of the State), even though he gets his kicks by beating up women.

    What happened to “Minnesota nice?” I guess the same thing happened to Minnesota as happened to Sweden – the left took over and they have made an alliance with the Islamists (and if homosexuals get murdered and women get raped beaten to a pulp – the left will look the other way, just as they already do in Sweden).

    I suspect that places such as South Dakota are looking increasingly attractive to the conservative minority in Minnesota.

  • Flubber

    “The BBC obsess about mythical threats to the Jews (such as the rise of a Welsh Hitler) and totally ignore the real threat to Jews – Islam.”

    Well judging by the French, the Jews will have it on their toes to Israel, and leave the Muslims to everyone else..

  • Runcie Balspune

    Google estimated the area, based on the user’s IP address or phone location

    Now here’s the thing, geolocation using an IP address is notoriously difficult to pinpoint.

    A majority of IP addresses for home customers are dynamically allocated by the ISP, you can only really trace what ISP a person is using by the IP, only the ISP would be able to confirm the location by cross referencing the IP, timestamp and phone number used to connect.

    IP addresses allocated to mobile phones via an ISP (mobile provider) are almost impossible to geolocate, this can only be done by using GPS and/or mobile phone masts, as Google Maps would do.

    And lets not forget IP can be spoofed, which is more common than you think, because YouTube, Facebook, Netflix, et al, regularly limit access to content by location, and therefore many people take advantage of free VPN plug-ins to spoof location and get round it.

    So the bottom line is, I can bet that IP addresses were not used in a vast amount of this data to establish location data.

    The only way this information was slurped was using geolocation by other means, rather dubious means at that, because I don’t recall Google telling people that whenever they make a search they will cross reference with the GPS and/or cell phone tower to record the place the search was made in, or that ISPs regularly handover to the likes of the BBC all the phone records of its customers.

    “Internet companies have a really important part to play in directing people towards or away from hate content. These companies can use their power for good or for ill.”

    Just remember, this kind of data collection can be used by evil people to track those they do not like just as easily, just remember that when you next search for “nearest kosher bakery”.