AANZCA 2025

Searching for the Truth? Search Engine Responses to Conspiratorial Search Practices 

Kateryna Kasianenko, Caroline Gardam, Katherine M. FitzGerald, Ashwin Nagappa, Daniel Angus, Shir Weinbrand, Samantha Vilkins, Axel Bruns, Abdul Karim Obeid

• 26 Nov. 2025 – Paper presented at the AANZCA 2025 conference, Sunshine Coast

Presentation Slides

Abstract

Analysis of user search practices and the results produced by search engines in response to these practices is essential for understanding the dynamics of online conspiracies. However, the evaluation of search results for the presence of conspiratorial or debunking information still significantly lags behind studies of online conspiracies on social media. Emergent research demonstrates that commercial search engines often do not prevent conspiracy theories from gaining high visibility in search results, failing to “do the right thing”, as outlined in Google’s Code of Conduct. This is particularly true for situations where users’ search practices reflect their conspiratorial beliefs.  Prior audits of search engines based on very short queries do not account for recent changes in the affordances of search engines. With Google’s introduction of AI Overviews, conversational search is already becoming more prominent. Conversational search practices entail longer search queries that are also more likely to reflect user intent, but may also vary based on membership of conspiratorial epistemic communities.

To understand the connection between search practices and exposure to information, we generated a list of search queries related to weather modification. Weather modification conspiracy theories, such as chemtrails, have semantically hijacked the discourse on “geoengineering” to represent conspiracy discourse. Geoengineering science exists in varied forms: experimental, such as albedo modification or stratospheric aerosol injection, or localised, such as cloud seeding. However, adherents of conspiracy theories frequently claim information about geoengineering research is proof of a conspiracy to change the weather or the climate.

Drawing from open fora posts by users supporting conspiratorial views on geoengineering, we construct conversational queries situated along the thematic spectrum between dominant and oppositional framing. We then examine respective search results, including links, AI Overviews, and other information through a mixed-methods approach. We focus especially on the presence or absence of conspiratorial and debunked sources in the search results. In doing so, we examine how Google, the world's most widely used search engine, navigates the complex balance between avoiding information malpractices by providing users with the most accurate information while minimising the spread of conspiracy theories. Our findings serve as an important link between the audits of search engines and the search practices of conspiratorial epistemic communities.