Is Microsoft Contributing To Obama Smear Campaign?
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Obama sets up internet 'war room' to fight slurs
Is Hotmail Contributing To Obama-Muslim Smear Campaign?
The Huffington Post | June 10, 2008 10:41 AM
There is great concern -- both within and outside of Barack Obama's campaign -- that the smear attacks suggesting that the Senator is, in fact, a Muslim, might have a lingering effect on the election. Obama himself has worked to debunk the emails, including during several prominent speeches.
Now, however, a group of politically active consultants are arguing that the issue is far more systemic than believed. DHOB, an independent consulting firm, released a statement on Tuesday morning drawing attention to a quirk in Hotmail's editing system that, they warn, could subconsciously be perpetuating the Obama-is-a-Muslim rumor.
According to Bill Hillsman, a partner at the firm, under Hotmail's system, if a user has the word Obama in his or her email, and then clicks the spell check button, the top suggested item that comes up is Osama -- as in, the leader of al Qaeda. This does hold not true for any other popular web email services, such as GMail, AOL, or Yahoo, which either don't offer replacement suggestions or suggest something other than Osama (like "Alabama").
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A quirk? LOL.
Obama sets up internet 'war room' to fight slurs
Is Hotmail Contributing To Obama-Muslim Smear Campaign?
The Huffington Post | June 10, 2008 10:41 AM
There is great concern -- both within and outside of Barack Obama's campaign -- that the smear attacks suggesting that the Senator is, in fact, a Muslim, might have a lingering effect on the election. Obama himself has worked to debunk the emails, including during several prominent speeches.
Now, however, a group of politically active consultants are arguing that the issue is far more systemic than believed. DHOB, an independent consulting firm, released a statement on Tuesday morning drawing attention to a quirk in Hotmail's editing system that, they warn, could subconsciously be perpetuating the Obama-is-a-Muslim rumor.
According to Bill Hillsman, a partner at the firm, under Hotmail's system, if a user has the word Obama in his or her email, and then clicks the spell check button, the top suggested item that comes up is Osama -- as in, the leader of al Qaeda. This does hold not true for any other popular web email services, such as GMail, AOL, or Yahoo, which either don't offer replacement suggestions or suggest something other than Osama (like "Alabama").
--MORE--
A quirk? LOL.