This is how the internet forgets

Boris Johnson has shown exactly how to hide your disturbing online details from Google search.

Yes.

Boooris Johnson, the PM of a small island sitting next to Europe. He is an internet virtuoso.

To understand this, we revisit an interview he held prior to becoming PM. In it, he described his peculiar habit of making model buses in his spare time.

WATCH: "What do you do to relax?"
Boris Johnson: "I make things. I make models of buses." @talkRADIO pic.twitter.com/azQ35cpxDc

— Ross Kempsell (@rosskempsell) 25 June 2019

Talk about awkward interviews. The poor chap holding the microphone was not trained for these situations.

Under ordinary circumstances, we would discount the moment as yet another piece of political theater. But, nothing is rarely so simple.

There is a mammoth back story. Prior to the 2016 EU referendum, Johnson tried swaying votes to LEAVE. He hired a BUS to display the sensationalist message claiming the UK government was losing £350 million per week to the EU.

Crucially, his claim has been proven to be false and misleading.

Now, how to erase this embarassing piece of history? Double down!

Boris tells another wild story!

He cleverly showcases his knowledge of how Google works. Firstly, this uncalled for and bewildering statement is 100% headline-worthy. Twitter, news outlets would all clamour to break this news.

Secondly, and sadly, most people do not read beyond the 1st page of Google results. In this era, maybe only Google engineers visit the badlands of page 2 and beyond.

So, say for example, I want to know what Boris said, I would say to Google Search: "Boris Johnson model bus" or "Boris Johnson bus". I would see the first results page with 10 news items all pointing to the recent news article. And probably click the third article. I like 3. :D

Thereby, I would only see the skewed recent happenings and become oblivious to the truth of the past.

That is how the yellow man got away with it!

Google optimises results based on time, popularity and other factors. This means any big story which is related to a term will feature more prominently in results.

Anybody with a platform large enough can break a big story which would overshadow any prior embarassing news item.

Rewriting history. Now, it is possible on the internet. Sort of.

Read more here:

https://gizmodo.com/did-boris-johnson-ramble-about-model-buses-to-manipulat-1835903361