South African squatters: Why is Google mainly showing white people?

On Thursday, South Africans were left confused after someone discovered that Google showcases something rather odd when you search “South African squatters”.

A click over to Google Images presents you with tons of pictures. Where does the odd part come in? Well, the first page is made up almost entirely of white families.

South African squatters: What’s up with Google?

The rapid Google searches of the phrase started on Wednesday after Twitter user Xolisa Dyeshana asked questions about Google’s algorithm.

Please google "squatter camps in South Africa" and go to images. @Google when did this happen and why? 😳😳😳

— Xolisa Dyeshana (@XolisaDyeshana) June 13, 2018

With millions of black South Africans living in townships and squatter camps, South Africans could not wrap their head around how Google was only showing white people.

While a small number of white South Africans do live in areas similar to townships, these areas consist of just a few wendy houses and even caravans.

South African Twitter users kept digging though and soon came back with facts about how Google’s algorithm works.

The algorithm has more than 200 factors that are taken into account when deciding what image to display. These include things like the age of the specific page and how many visits the page has gotten.

If the page gets a huge number of views, Google deems that site to be of a high quality.

The Mail & Guardian points out that an SABC article published earlier this year could have played a role in the pictures. The article looks at how a largely white squatter camp has expanded in Mpumalanga.

With numerous fake and exaggerated posts about the “White Genocide” in South Africa, international searches and fear-mongering organisations like the Suidlanders’ traffic, would have also had an effect.

In fact, many of the pictures Google displays are from such articles and blog posts.

While Google currently does have control of its algorithm, it still faces the challenge of not allowing a factually incorrect narrative to dominate proceedings.

Figures from Africa Check in 2013 showed that of the roughly 4.59m white South Africans, just 7,754 households are affected by abject poverty.