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<\/a><\/p>\nWhite House economic adviser Larry Kudlow, responding to a question about the tweets, said that the administration is going to do \u201cinvestigations and analysis\u201d into the issue but stressed they\u2019re \u201cjust looking into it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Google issued a statement saying its searches are designed to give users relevant answers.<\/p>\n
\u201cSearch is not used to set a political agenda and we don\u2019t bias our results toward any political ideology,\u201d the statement said. \u201cEvery year, we issue hundreds of improvements to our algorithms to ensure they surface high-quality content in response to users\u2019 queries. We continually work to improve Google Search and we never rank search results to manipulate political sentiment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Google is not the first Silicon Valley stalwart to receive criticism from Trump. He has alleged the online merchant Amazon.com Inc. has a sweetheart deal with the Postal Service and slammed founder Jeff Bezos\u2019s ownership of what Trump calls \u201cthe Amazon Washington Post.\u201d<\/p>\n
The most recent broadside follows the president\u2019s Aug. 24 claim that social media \u201cgiants\u201d are \u201csilencing millions of people.\u201d Such accusations — along with assertions that the news media and Special Counsel Robert Mueller\u2019s Russia meddling probe are biased against him — have been a chief Trump talking point meant to appeal to the president\u2019s base.<\/p>\n
Charges that social media platforms have censored conservatives have risen as companies such as Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. try to curb the reach of conspiracy theorists, disinformation campaigns, foreign political meddling and abusive posters.<\/p>\n
Google News rankings have sometimes surfaced unconfirmed and erroneous reports in the early minutes of tragedies when there is little information to populate its searches. After the Oct. 1 Las Vegas shooting, for instance, several accounts seemed to coordinate an effort to smear a man misidentified as the shooter with false claims about his political ties.<\/p>\n
Google has since tightened its requirements for inclusion in news rankings, purging outlets that \u201cconceal their country of origin\u201d and relying more on authoritative outlets, although the moves have led to charges from less established outlets of censorship. It currently says it ranks news based on \u201cfreshness\u201d and \u201cdiversity\u201d of the stories. Trump-favored outlets such as Fox News routinely appear in results.<\/p>\n
The White House isn\u2019t alone in its criticism. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Sunday repeated his allegations of anti-conservative bias and censorship online and called for social media platforms to be more “open.”<\/p>\n
“If this is where two-thirds of Americans are getting their news, it\u2019s not a fair process,” he said on Fox News. He said he wanted “transparency” but stopped short of calling for regulation.<\/p>\n
Eric Schmidt, Alphabet\u2019s former chief executive officer, supported Hillary Clinton against Trump during the last election. There have been unsubstantiated claims the company buried negative search results about her during the election.<\/p>\n
Google is due to face lawmakers at a hearing on Russian election meddling on Sept. 5. The company intended to send Senior Vice President for Global Affairs Kent Walker to testify, but the panel\u2019s chairman, Senator Richard Burr, who wanted Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai, has rejected Walker. Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey are also said to be testifying.<\/p>\n
Dorsey is also due to testify that day at the House Energy and Commerce Committee on content-moderation and algorithms, where he will likely face similar questions about alleged bias against conservatives.<\/p>\n
Despite Trump\u2019s comments, it\u2019s unclear what he or Congress could do. Internet platforms treasure an exemption from liability for the content their users post. Some top members of Congress have suggested limiting the protection as a response to alleged bias and other misdeeds, although there have been few moves to do so since Congress curbed the shield for some cases of sex trafficking earlier in the year.<\/p>\n
The government has little ability to dictate to publishers and curators what news to present despite the president\u2019s occasional threats to use the power of the government to curb coverage he dislikes and his tendency to complain that news about him is overly negative.<\/p>\n
Trump has talked about expanding libel laws and mused about reinstating long-ended rules requiring equal time for opposing views, which didn\u2019t apply to the internet. Neither has resulted in a serious policy push.<\/p>\n
Trump has not always been hostile to Google. In July he lashed out at the European Union for imposing a record $5 billion fine against Google over its mobile phone operating system, calling Google one of America\u2019s \u201cgreat companies.\u201d<\/p>\n
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