How did Google allow fake news about the Srebrenica genocide?

And, he’s not the only one. The other six or seven titles on the shelf are similar. What would you think?

Go from a brick-and-mortar store to online… and it’s pretty much the same. This is troubling, as people today, when looking for information, rarely pick up a book, but open Google, or YouTube, or other social media sources.

In Bosnia, young people between the ages of 18 and 30 rely on information gathered on online and social media networks, a survey conducted last year by Mediacentar Sarajevo shows. The latter is a non-governmental organization that supports and helps the development of independent media in Bosnia.

Take Google for example. Type “Srebrenica is…” into the world’s most popular search engine and the results, in several languages, will be shocking. They will include answers like: “Srebrenica is a lie”.

When the Balkan Service of Radio Free Europe has contacted Googlenoting this, the company has taken action to remove content denying the genocide in Srebrenica.

However, this only seems to apply to English language Google search results. Searches about the Srebrenica genocide in other languages ​​continue to turn up misinformation.

On July 11, 1995, more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were rounded up and killed by Serb forces near the eastern town of Srebrenica. It was the worst mass killing in Europe since World War II.

The massacre in Srebrenica has been described as genocide both by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and by the International Court of Justice.

Bosnian Serb wartime army commander Ratko Mladic and former Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic have been sentenced to life in prison by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for their roles in the Srebrenica genocide.

Serbian officials deny that Serbian forces committed genocide. For the Government in Serbia, this is a “terrible crime”, President Aleksandar Vucic said in a speech to the UN Security Council in June of last year.

In the center of Belgrade, a mural of Mladic has been painted on the facade of a building, which highlights the fact that for many Serbs he remains a hero.

For those living today in Srebrenica, the town located in the Republika Srpska, majority-Serb region of Bosnia, the dominance of genocide denial on the Internet is not surprising.

“When I saw it written ‘Srebrenica is a lie’, I was not surprised, because, unfortunately, even today many people deny the genocide, saying that it was all a lie, that it did not happen”says Azemina Suliq, a high school student in Srebrenica, for Radio Free Europe’s Balkan Service.

In 2021, Valentin Inzko, then head of the Office of the High Representative in Bosnia, outlawed genocide denial. The law has been heavily criticized by Bosnian Serb leaders.

Google, owned by parent company Alphabet, has said it processes 63,000 queries every second, or 5.6 billion “google-me”s every day, including those of the Sulic schoolgirl.

Although he thinks that most of the information collected by this search engine is not 100 percent accurate, Sulic says that Google is a frequent source of information for him. “Mainly for school, when I’m doing a paper on a certain topic,” she says.

Tijana Stefanovic, from the town of Gornji Millanovac in central Serbia, also relies on Google to find information. “I check the Internet first,” Stefanovic tells Radio Free Europe, adding that she also uses other online sources.

After typing “Srebrenica is…” not only on Google, but also on YouTube, similar results appear; “Srebrenica is a lie” is among the first results that appear. “I wasn’t surprised, but I didn’t expect it to be the first search result either.” It is probably the most requested topic in our country, so it is at the top”, says Stefanovic.

How does the Google search engine work?

When a query is typed into Google, the search engine calculates many factors, including the “language of the query”, “the location the query is coming from” and “your past searches”.

All these factors affect what ultimately appears on the computer screen, says Fillip Milosevic of the Share Foundation, an NGO that protects and promotes rights and freedoms on the Internet.

“To decide what to display, systems analyze common and popular queries, but also take into account other factors, such as: the language and location of the user making the search”says Milosevic for Radio Free Europe.

“Such systems that work on the basis of algorithms cannot be perfect and neutral, due to the very nature of the data they process, which are created by people, which are not neutral”he adds.

As a result, says Milosevic, it often happens that search engines “return results that are biased, discriminatory, offensive, or even facts that are not verified or known.”
Google told RFE/RL that “when the community alerts us to results that, for whatever reason, seem inappropriate to them, we evaluate them and take action.”

“Any user can report an inappropriate result directly in the autocomplete box,” Google said.

“In the case of the phrase ‘Srebrenica is a lie’, we have taken action and removed this automatic result,” the company said.

According to Milosevic, “Google trains artificial intelligence systems, but also employs teams of people who spot violations of company policies.”

Internet and reality

The Srebrenica Memorial Center says the Google search results are not surprising because most people “in Serbia and the Republika Srpska entity believe that there was no genocide in Srebrenica.”

“What I can say is that people who want to search for Srebrenica and come from a region that denies the genocide, prefer to find untruths to make it easier for themselves and then stop their search there.”, says the spokeswoman of the Srebrenica Memorial Center, Allmasha Salihovic, for Radio Free Europe.

“The fact is that people in these areas often prefer to believe in myths and unverified statements, rather than facts and estimates.“, she adds.

A report by the Srebrenica Memorial Center has collected 234 cases of genocide denial that appeared in the media in Bosnia between May 2020 and May 2021.

“More than two decades after the genocide, perhaps more than ever, we are facing the fact that all generations and categories of people in the Republika Srpska and in Serbia are trying to say as loudly as possible that in Srebrenica no genocide happened. These people have never been interested in the truth. The truth is much harder to accept than a lie“, says Salihovic.

Earlier this year, in Priboj, a town on the border between Serbia and Bosnia, where Serbs and Bosniaks live, a song was sung, in the presence of Serbian policemen, calling for a repeat of Srebrenica and the rape and murder of Bosniaks.

Recently, a video was posted on social networks, showing small children singing a song by the popular singer, Mirko Pajçin, better known by the nickname Baja Malli Kninxha. The song “I don’t love you, Alija” glorifies the crimes against the Bosnian population during the war. / Radio Free Europe

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