Responsible behavior in epistemic practices that rely on the use of search engines
Keywords:
disinformation, epistemic responsibility, search engines, Google, userAbstract
Disinformation, propaganda content, conspiracy theories, pseudo-scientific interpretations, and similar deceptive narratives that we come across through our internet search engines, represent a serious threat to acquiring true beliefs and preserving democratic values. With this in mind, their wide presence in our internet searches poses relevant questions, including those that are the subject matter of this paper: (a) how and to what extent can the epistemic landscape that facilitates their spread be understood; (b) to whom can we ascribe the responsibility for their acquisition and distribution; and (c) what measures and strategies can be taken to mitigate their impact on public opinion to a satisfactory extent? To partially answer these three closely connected questions, we will deal with socio-epistemic characteristics of the Google Search engine, the ways in which it affects our epistemic practices and strategies for improving the users’ epistemic position. Special attention will be devoted to the question of a more precise distribution of responsibilities between the search engine and the epistemic agent. Within our position, the weight of responsibility is equally distributed between the user and the search engine.
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