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Comment by gnu8 | Hacker News Reader

I'm inclined to think that the company running the ads typed in a bunch of black sounding names as keywords for their ad campaign. Having run ads on google before I believe that would produce the result observed. I have no information that discounts the other possibilities though.

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I would agree with you, except that these look like remnant ads (i.e., no one specifically bid on this keyword, which is common with names).

You see this with Amazon and eBay too - if you search Google for something weird which no one has bid on, you'll often see "Find [bananaphone] on eBay/Amazon". These "people search" results are similar: extremely long-tail, very generic ad.

So, I think its probably algorithmic vs intentional. Could be ML that's learned racism from the internet itself.

Who knows though! Your explanation would certainly make sense. Its a fascinating problem.

> Could be ML that's learned racism from the internet itself.

This was my first thought.

This reeks of affiliate marketing. Background check websites are big business among affiliate marketers (https://www.google.com/search?q=background+check+affiliate). Advertisers only pay for clicks, so creating 10,000 campaigns targeting first names is basically free. The CPC on most first names is nearly $0.00, too.

Google is involved to the extent that they serve ads in response to specific keywords. Instant Checkmate is involved only to the extent that they ignore the source of their referrals. Someone with a little more free time could probably trace HTTP traffic to find the specific affiliate responsible.

Does google allow you to pick any keyword you want? Words like slavery, Holocaust, KKK?

They have some filters. You can't take out ads on pharmacy, alcohol, or drug related terms for example. I'd assume they have filters on hate related words as well.

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