(Mis)Uses of Technology

(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick




Using The Google Counter In The Supreme Court

from the oh,-please-make-it-stop... dept

It seemed bad enough when a story popped up talking about journalists relying on the number of results of a Google search as some sort of proof of something - but I didn't expect such unscientific research to show up in the Supreme Court. However, reports concerning the hearing on whether or not the COPA child porn law is Constitutional, apparently Solicitor General Theodore Olson used the oh-so-scientific method of proving his point by claiming that a Google search on "free porn" turned up 6,230,000 sites. One of the justices immediately suspected that this isn't indicative of much and responded by asking if Olson could prove they all actually had porn. He responded with a joke, saying, he "didn't have time to see them all." While it apparently got a laugh, hopefully, the Justices will cut off that line of "evidence" to support an argument.

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