Google is the latest tech giant to find itself at crosshairs with President Donald Trump amidst allegations that its search engine algorithm is configured’ to promote left-wing news articles. The commander in chief insists that the search giant continues to hide fair media coverage of him, a practice he says he intends to address soon.
Trump vs. Google
In rage tweets early in the morning, President Trump alleged that 96% of search results on ‘Trump News’ are from National Left Wing Media. It has since emerged that the 96% claim is in reference to a report posted by PJ, Media that is not based on any scientific study.
Google search results for “Trump News” shows only the viewing/reporting of Fake News Media. In other words, they have it RIGGED, for me & others, so that almost all stories & news is BAD. Fake CNN is prominent. Republican/Conservative & Fair Media is shut out. Illegal? 96% of….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 28, 2018
A quick Google search of ‘Trump News’ triggers search results including those from Trump’s favorite news source Fox News. Trump has also gone as far as opening a can of worms by insisting Google continues to suppress the voices of conservatives who make up a huge base of his supporters.
….results on “Trump News” are from National Left-Wing Media, very dangerous. Google & others are suppressing voices of Conservatives and hiding information and news that is good. They are controlling what we can & cannot see. This is a very serious situation-will be addressed!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 28, 2018
Google’s Response
Google has already rebutted the Commander in Chief claims insisting that it strives to make sure people receive the best answer whenever they type a question into its search bar. Google has also made it clear that it does not use its search tool to set a political agenda.
“Every year, we issue hundreds of improvements to our algorithms to ensure they surface high-quality content in response to users’ queries. We continually work to improve Google Search, and we never rank search results to manipulate political sentiment.” Google in a statement.
What Mr. Trump does not seem to understand is that search results tend to vary depending on the person doing the search? If indeed he does see a lot of negative news about himself on Google search, then the same could indicate that he does read a lot of left-wing media news.
This is not the first time that Trump has taken news outlets head on, over what he terms bias in reporting. He has in the past accused Facebook and Twitter of silencing conservative voices.