Trump Hammers Google Again, but Signals Against Regulation
August 29 2018 - 11:06PM
Dow Jones News
By Douglas MacMillan
President Trump continued his criticism for a second straight
day that Google's search engine is biased against conservatives,
while saying he prefers not to pursue regulation of the internet
giant.
Mr. Trump posted a video to Twitter on Wednesday that showed
Google's home page promoted live broadcasts of former President
Barack Obama's State of the Union addresses on YouTube but didn't
extend those promotions to Mr. Trump's speeches before
Congress.
The post, which included the hashtag #StopTheBias, followed Mr.
Trump's claim Tuesday that Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc.,
surfaces news and search results that are unfavorable to himself
and other conservatives because of what he sees as the company's
left-leaning bias -- which Google denied. Mr. Trump in a series of
tweets Tuesday signaled potential government action if Google
didn't change its alleged practices.
The president reiterated the bias claim Wednesday, telling
reporters at the White House he would like to see Google, along
with Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc., treat conservatives more
fairly. "They are really trying to silence a very large part of
this country and those people don't want to be silenced," Mr. Trump
said. "You know what we want? Not regulation, we want
fairness."
A White House official said the president has made clear he
wants his administration to look into the issue, and several
officials were tasked with finding options for potential action
against social-media companies.
Google said this week that its search results don't reflect any
political ideology and it never ranks results to manipulate
political sentiment.
The company on Wednesday also disputed the claim in Mr. Trump's
tweet regarding State of the Union addresses. A Google spokeswoman
said Wednesday that the company did highlight the live stream of
Mr. Trump's State of the Union address on Jan. 30. She said Google
promoted neither Mr. Trump's speech to Congress in February 2017
nor Mr. Obama's in February 2009 because the first such speech by a
new president isn't considered a State of the Union address.
Archived versions of Google's home page on Internet Archive, a
nonprofit that preserves historical snapshots of webpages, appear
to show Google.com promoting Mr. Trump's State of the Union at
certain points during this year's speech and not at others. Several
snapshots of the page that day don't show promotion of Mr. Trump's
speech. Google declined a request to provide a screenshot showing
promotion of this year's speech.
Internet Archive snapshots of Google.com during the days of
President Obama's State of the Union addresses from 2012 through
2016 show promotional links to watch the speech "tonight on
YouTube" throughout the day.
Mr. Trump on Wednesday also mentioned his interest in a
congressional hearing scheduled for Sept. 5, when executives
including Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey and Facebook Chief
Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg are scheduled to testify before
the Senate Intelligence Committee about election interference.
Kent Walker, Google's senior vice president for global affairs,
planned to join the hearing. But last week, Sen. Richard Burr (R.,
N.C.), who heads that committee, said he had rejected Google's
offer to send Mr. Walker, apparently in an effort to force a more
senior executive to appear.
Sen. Burr on Wednesday included the name of Alphabet's CEO,
Larry Page, on the committee's list of witnesses who are invited to
the hearing. Mr. Walker's name wasn't included.
Write to Douglas MacMillan at douglas.macmillan@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
August 29, 2018 22:51 ET (02:51 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024