In a surprising move, Google decided Palestine was no longer necessary for their maps.

This comes during a troubling time when situations in the middle east are already tense making many people question the motives behind Google.

If you are interested in a brief recap of what has been going on in the land of Israel/Palestine in the last century or so, check out Crash Course's summary here:

Since Google is the go to search engine provider for the majority of the world, they have a great deal of control, and more importantly, responsibility to deliver unbiased information globally. So when they removed Palestine from their maps (according to a report from the Middle East Memo last week) the Palestinian Journalist's forum furiously responded:

"[This] is part of the Israeli scheme to establish its name as a legitimate state for generations to come and abolish Palestine once and for all... The move is also designed to falsify history, geography as well as the Palestinian people’s right to their homeland, and a failed attempt to tamper with the memory of Palestinians and Arabs as well as the world. [This is] contrary to all international norms and conventions.”

Looking at Google maps as of 8/8/16, you can verify that Palestine is no longer listed directly on the map:

And what adds to the situation is the apparent bias Google has even in the description of locations. Compare Israel's and Palestine's descriptions that Google lists:

Israel Quick Facts (~420 characters)

Israel, a Middle Eastern country on the Mediterranean Sea, is regarded by Jews, Christians and Muslims as the biblical Holy Land. Its most sacred sites are in Jerusalem. Within its Old City, the Temple Mount complex includes the Dome of the Rock shrine, the historic Western Wall, Al-Aqsa Mosque and Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Its financial hub, Tel Aviv, is known for Bauhaus architecture, beaches and nightlife.

Founded:May 14, 1948
Prime minister:Benjamin Netanyahu
President:Reuven Rivlin

Note that the description is somewhat lengthy and it includes the date Israel was founded. Now compare this with the description for "Palestine."

Palestine (~200 characters)

The State of Palestine, also known simply as Palestine, is a de jure sovereign state in the Middle East that is recognized by 136 UN members and since 2012 has a status of a non-member observer state ...Wikipedia

President:Mahmoud Abbas
Capital:East Jerusalem
Prime minister:Rami Hamdallah

The two key factors that I found very interesting in this comparison is that Google decided to leave the date of Palestine's independence off of their quick facts, and they cut the description short by about half of Israel's length. If they included the entire summary of Palestine from the Wikipedia article, it would have read:

The State of Palestine, also known simply as Palestine, is a de jure sovereign state in the Middle East that is recognized by 136 UN members and since 2012 has a status of a non-member observer state. The State of Palestine claims the West Bank (bordering Israel and Jordan) and Gaza Strip (bordering Israel and Egypt) with East Jerusalem as the designated capital. Most of the areas claimed by the State of Palestine have been occupied by Israel since 1967 in the aftermath of the Six-Day War. Its independence was declared on 15 November 1988 by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Algiers as a government-in-exile.

This is a clear example off media bias through omission, or a very directed oversight

Study.com goes over media biases which illustrates how Google is no exception:

Bias by omission is often associated with political news stories. Sometimes the media reports a story from a liberal political viewpoint, neglecting to include facts that support a conservative point of view. Or perhaps the media reports a story from a conservative political viewpoint, without including facts that support a liberal point of view.

This is similar to bias by selection of sources. Bias by selection of sources, means a media outlet leaves out sources that support an opposing point of view. For example, the media might quote conservative sources without including a proportional number of liberal sources.

Google decided to choose different sources for their "Quick Facts" information on Israel and Palestine. Furthermore they chose to limit Palestine's description by half of Israel's and only chose information favorable of Israel. If this is happening here, what other articles and topics are being manipulated towards a certain stance? How much trust can we have that Google will deliver unbiased information?

Conclusion and my personal stance

Who should control the land? I have no idea. But what I do know is that I want access to information from both sides in the debate without a filter leading to a specific ideology. And if Google is fine with tailoring biased information for its users on this subject, how many more topics are they grooming?