False: Google Changes the Area of Palestine

Omar Fares

Technology

29th May 2020

False: Google Changes the Area of Palestine

The Claim

Google changes the area of Palestine in its search results from 27,000 km² to 6,220 km².

News posted on

Alqudsnewspaper

Al Roya TV

Emerging story

A few posts on social media and news websites claim that Google's search engine changed the area of Palestine that appears when searching from 27,000 square kilometers to 6.22 thousand square kilometers.

The claim was published on the official page of Al-Quds newspaper via Facebook with a screenshot from the search results.

Also, Jordan's popular news channel website Ro’ya also published a news article about it, claiming that Google's change of search result was due to the deal of the century.

The claim circulated in multiple Arabic social media posts just days after President Trump announced a deal, known as Deal of the Century, on the 28th of January 2020. The deal included an international effort of $50 billion for Palestinian State development, while Israel keeps Jerusalem as its indivisible capital, and the Palestinians have theirs on a fraction of East Jerusalem.

Misbar’s Analysis

Misbar found during its search that Google did not change the area of Palestine from 27,000 km² to 6,000 km². However, it never recognized it as 27,000.

The search engine based its result on dividing the area into three sections, the West Bank with an area of 5,640 km², the Gaza Strip with an area of 365 km², and the total of which appears as "the area of Palestine."