Trump Accuses Google of Suppressing Positive News About His Presidency
August 28 2018 - 9:05AM
Dow Jones News
By Vivian Salama
WASHINGTON -- President Trump on Tuesday accused Alphabet Inc.'s
Google search platform of elevating critical news stories about his
presidency at the expense of friendly conservative voices,
declaring that it is a "very serious situation" that will be
addressed.
On Twitter, the president wrote in a pair of early morning
tweets that a search in Google for "Trump News" yielded 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," he wrote.
"Fake CNN is prominent. Republican/Conservative & Fair Media
is shut out," he wrote. "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!"
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Republicans have criticized social media sites such as Facebook
and Twitter over their treatment of conservatives on their
platforms. Last week, the president accused social media platforms
of "silencing millions of people."
Earlier in the month, Mr. Trump also claimed that tech companies
are "totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative
voices," pledging that his administration "won't let that
happen."
Google News's search algorithm is opaque, and news media outlets
expend considerable energy and resources optimizing their online
content to win better placement in search results.
Accusations that Google tampers with search results are not new
or uncommon. Those accusations took on a new life during the 2016
presidential election when some conservatives claimed that the
technology giant was censoring controversial subjects as part of an
effort to purge the internet of fake news reports.
In recent weeks, tech giants Facebook Inc., Apple Inc., Alphabet
Inc.'s YouTube platform and Spotify Technology S.A. stripped their
sites of content from far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones,
saying the Infowars star had violated terms of service barring
certain hateful or offensive speech. Mr. Jones still retains his
Twitter account.
In April, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Robert Goodlatte
(R, Va.) warned tech executives in a hearing that while social
media companies were "exercising great care and discretion to
ensure that their services are not abused," there is a "fine line
between removing illegal activity and suppressing speech."
Write to Vivian Salama at Vivian.Salama@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 28, 2018 08:50 ET (12:50 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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