This study investigates the emergence and dynamics of “data voids” in Google Search, focusing on how extreme-right content can dominate search results for specific migration-related queries.
RAT-based scraping methods were used to collect up to the top 30 Google results for over 21,000 localized search queries in Germany and Sweden, combining migration-related keywords with municipality names to analyse source concentration and the presence of extreme-right content in search results.
Abstract
This study deploys a critical approach to big data analytics to gauge the tentative contours of data voids in Google searches that reflect extreme-right dynamics of exclusion in the aftermath of the 2015 humanitarian crisis in Europe. The study adds complexity to the analysis of data voids, expanding the framework of investigation outside the USA context by concentrating on Germany and Sweden. Building on previous big data analytics addressing the politics of exclusion, the study proposes a catalogue of queries concerning the issue of migration in both Germany and Sweden on a continuum from mainstream to extreme-right vocabularies. This catalogue of queries enables specific and localized queries to identify data voids. The results show that a search engine’s reliance on source popularity may lead to extreme-right sources appearing in top positions. Furthermore, using platforms for user-generated content provides a way for localized queries to gain top positions.
RAT functionality used
Scrapers: Google (DE), Google (SE)
Publications
Article
Norocel, O. C., & Lewandowski, D. (2023). Google, data voids, and the dynamics of the politics of exclusion. Big Data & Society, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517221149099