Google’s recent announcement about its “sensitive Events” has resulted in swirling speculation and rumors of what it could mean, and regardless of so-called “conspiracy” paranoia, the search giant’s update has justifiably brought fears of what could be ahead of us in 2024.
2023 was already a turbulent year, marred with ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Israel, rising inflation, erratic weather, a looming economic crash, and general chaos across the globe.
Now, as we enter 2024, it appears the ever-growing chaos is only going to increase, especially as it’s a U.S. election year, and given the world suffered a global COVID-19 “pandemic” during the election of 2020, what this year holds may not bear thinking about.
It’s also worth noting that Google made a similar update in 2020 during the pandemic. As Search Journal noted: Google updated new language that added “the mention of ‘public health emergency’: ‘Content that potentially capitalizes on or lacks reasonable sensitivity towards a natural disaster, conflict, death, public health emergency, or other tragic events.'”
In the most recent Google “Update to Inappropriate content policy,” the search giant said:
“A ‘Sensitive Event’ is an unforeseen event or development that creates significant risk to Google’s ability to provide high quality, relevant information and ground truth, and reduce insensitive or exploitative content in prominent and monetized features. During a Sensitive Event, we may take a variety of actions to address these risks.”
“Examples of Sensitive Events include events with significant social, cultural, or political impact, such as civil emergencies, natural disasters, public health emergencies, terrorism and related activities, conflict, or mass acts of violence.”
The update is unnerving, given predictions about what 2024 may hold for both the U.S. political arena and, indeed, the entire planet. Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson warned the 2024 election is going to be “like nothing we’ve ever seen.”
“I flew out here across the country this morning and spent five hours texting people … and I gotta tell you, every single person I texted, with the exception of my wife — who’s not on the internet at all — was angry and paranoid,” Carlson said while speaking at the Risk On 360! Global Success Conference in Las Vegas in November last year. “I’m just telling you once again, what you already know, which is this is going to be — the next year is going to be, I think I’d bet my house on it, really like nothing we’ve ever seen in the country.”
Carlson’s warning came amid the ongoing political upheaval in the U.S. after former president Donald Trump was charged with 91 criminal offenses in four cases.
As Carlson noted, the charges are an attempt to keep Trump from running for office under the 14th Amendment because of his involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots of 2021. Regardless of whatever reasoning opponents of the former president have made, many voters also see it as a desperate, if not brazen “election interference.”
Meanwhile, CBS News reporter Catherine Herridge also speculated about the potential for a “black swan event” in 2024.
.@CBS_Herridge predicts in 2024, the U.S. may have "a national security event with high impact that's very hard to predict," pointing to ongoing wars and U.S. division as factors creating "fertile ground for our adversaries like North Korea, China and Iran" to take advantage of. pic.twitter.com/Vx8MTnn1W8
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) December 24, 2023
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, a black swan event is a “high-impact event that is difficult to predict under normal circumstances but that in retrospect appears to have been inevitable.”
The chaotic political turbulence coupled with doom predictions indicates the general nature of what we can expect in 2024. With Google’s update, it confirms we need to fasten our seatbelts.
Google added that it would not permit its advertisers to use such events to “drive traffic,” adding that “victim blaming” is also banned.
Whether Google is just positioning itself in the light of what we have seen with the COVID pandemic or if they know something we don’t remains unclear.
In conclusion, it’s fair to argue that some of us can feel something on the horizon, even if we can’t articulate it.
If there is one prediction we can count on, 2024 will be wild.
