Is Siri(iPhone) Pro Life? Apparently Yes (No search results for "Abortion" , "birth control")

[Vehl]

Apple iPhone 4S' Siri can find you hookers in your neighborhood. Siri can find you Viagra. Siri can find you a local surgeon to give you breast implants. But apparently it can't find abortion clinics.

The evidence seems pretty damning.

• If you ask Siri for an abortion clinic in New York City, it will tell you "Sorry, I couldn't find any abortion clinics." A simple Google web search—which Siri itself uses to find results—gives you seven to start with, some within walking distance of where I'm located.
• If you ask the same question in the city of Washington DC, Siri won't direct you to a nearby clinic, but to one 26 miles away.
• A reader reported that when he asked "find a pregnancy termination clinic" Siri responded: "I found a number of medical centers fairly close to you." Then "it showed me seven results and four of them were chiropractors, two were acupuncture specialists, and one was an emergency room."

more here
http://gizmodo.com/5863445/is-siri-pro-life-apparently-yes

When asked for directions to a abortion clinic it displays "Sorry I cannot find any abortion clinics". However, it is able to find other stuff (including places which sell Viagra, escort services..etc etc). Siri uses Google search and Wolfram Alpha to find its answers, and anyone can find these stuff using Google search. The Evidence seems to suggest (As many Women around the country have noticed) that Siri seems to be censoring(or rather explicitly programmed NOT to display results involving certain keywords..such as Abortion.

Here is another site that documents the seeming self censorship Siri does.
http://unknown20troper.tumblr.com/post/13515847663/siri-failures-illustrated

Yet another site that documents this issue with testing.
http://abortioneers.blogspot.com/2011/11/whats-deal-with-siri.html


As someone in the Computer field I tend to agree with the results and conclusions those who have tested this have come to. There is no way Siri can be so selectively dumb on a very particular subject, especially when it does work fine for very similar(but not abortion related) searches....furthermore the data IS available on Google search...something Siri itself uses.

I find this self censoring (if it turns out to be the case) a Very serious issue, as this reeks of duplicity. But then again, this is the price people pay when they go for a closed system which runs its "ecosystem" with an iron fist. (Remember how Steve Jobs banned porn apps/porn from the Apple market?....and claimed "get an android if you want porn?"). Seems to me that Apple is more than willing to censor search without letting its users know.(even though this is not yet "proven", the tests run on Siri seem to be making a pretty darn convincing case for its existence)




Siri is able to assist you with these



But apparently not with these

[TheWraith]

1. Kicked and recommended. nt

[Vehl]

2. This got unrecced? wow!

I usually dont care if people unrec threads or not, however I am rather surprised that this got unrecced in DU. (from +3 to 0)
I guess a company that seemingly censors Pro-choice related searches is A-Ok.

:eyes:

[REP]

3. Not great, but not anti-abortion either

Results from my phone from the same area as the first two screen shots:

[ecstatic]

4. Not an apple fan, but they're not called abortion clinics

Usually something like a Women's Clinic or Health Center. A better test might be to look up Planned Parenthood?

[REP]

5. Found 15 Women's Health Clinics; 4 Planned Parenthoods...