President Trump attacked Google on Tuesday for what he claimed was an effort to intentionally suppress conservative views supportive of his administration, an accusation that increases pressure on technology companies grappling with their increasingly central role as purveyors of information.
Mr. Trump’s remarks — an about-face from last month, when he said Google was “one of our great companies” — come ahead of congressional hearings next week in which executives from many of the largest internet companies will be questioned. The president has increasingly targeted technology companies, along with the news media, over coverage that the White House does not like.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump’s ire was directed toward Google, which he said was not showing enough links to content from conservative sources in its search results.
“Google search results for ‘Trump News’ shows only the viewing/reporting of Fake New Media,” Mr. Trump
said on Twitter. “In other words, they have it RIGGED, for me & others, so that almost all stories & news is BAD.”
“They are controlling what we can & cannot see,” Mr. Trump said. He then suggested his administration would take action against the companies. “This is a very serious situation-will be addressed!”
Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Mr. Trump’s attacks on technology companies have increased since Apple, Google and Facebook removed content from Alex Jones, a right-wing conspiracy theorist who has been a vocal supporter of Mr. Trump’s agenda. Last week, Mr. Trump accused social media companies of “silencing millions of people,” and on Aug. 18,
he said the industry was “totally discriminating against Republican/Conservative voices.”
As evidence for his most recent claims, Mr. Trump said Google linked to a far greater number of articles from mainstream media outlets such as CNN than from conservative news sources.
Google’s search results, however, are determined by an algorithm that scores websites based on their relevancy for a given search word.
Major tech companies like Google, as well as social networks including Facebook and Twitter, have long seen themselves as unbiased platforms on which people and groups can post their views without interference. But following the 2016 presidential election, during which critics said the companies’ platforms were used to disseminate misinformation, they have been pushed by policymakers and users to do more.
The companies find themselves caught between groups who argue they don’t sufficiently police their platforms, and those who say they do too much, engaging in censorship. Last week, Facebook, Twitter and Google-owned YouTube
removed pages and accounts linked to Iran and Russia-backed groups.
The industry is also facing the prospect of more regulation. Executives from many of the largest internet companies will face questions next week at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing about efforts to prevent foreign meddling in the midterm elections in November, a follow-up to
congressional hearings held after the 2016 elections.
Mr. Trump’s swing at Google is a sharp change from last month, when he came the company’s defense after
European regulators fined it $5.1 billion for antitrust violations. At the time, Mr. Trump called Google “one of our great companies.”
