8 The Democratizing Effects of Search Engine Use: On Chance Exposures and Organizational Hubs

In this paper I highlight two implications of the widespread use of search engines, which are often overlooked by commentators. In the first part of the paper I argue that search engines are conducive to unplanned exposures to diverse and even op-posing views. In the second part I argue that search engines indirectly contribute to emergent political organization, since they allow large numbers of people to lo-cate and access organizational hubs of collective action. I conclude by pointing to the democratic significance of these properties. I In late 2002 Jiang Mianheng, the son of the former Chinese president and a powerful political figure, visited the 502 research institute of the Ministry of Information Industry to see a demonstration of high-speed internet. One of the engineers typed the name of his father, “Jiang Zemin, ” in the Google search engine box. Three of the top ten results were highly critical of the senior Jiang. “Evil Jiang Zemin ” was the title of the first result. Shortly af-terwards, according to well-informed sources, Jiang Mianheng instructed to block the search engine site (Tianliang 2005)