Commentary: Voters Be Beware That Google Interferes in U.S. Elections

by Kurt Mahlburg

 

A brand new investigation has found that Google interfered in American elections at least 41 times over the last 16 years.

Published on March 18, the Media Research Center Special Report traced election interference efforts by the world’s most popular search engine all the way back to the 2008 election of former President Barack Obama.

“In every case, Google harmed the candidates—regardless of party—who threatened its left-wing candidate of choice,” explains the report, which was compiled by MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider and Assistant Editor Gabriela Pariseau.

“From the mouths of Google executives, the tech giant let slip what was never meant to be made public: That Google uses its ‘great strength and resources and reach’ to advance its leftist values.”

The interference began during the Democratic primaries, when pro-Google Obama, who had worked with the internet gatekeeper while a U.S. Senator, faced off against Hillary Clinton after the latter had pledged to reign in Big Business.

When Google’s censorship of pro-Clinton and anti-Obama posts was made public, then-CEO Eric Schmidt told the media the blacklisting was done in error—all the while formally endorsing Obama for president and even hosting a party to celebrate his inauguration.

Throughout Barack Obama’s presidency, no fewer than 55 executives and employees from Google assumed roles within the federal government, while almost 200 federal government personnel transitioned to positions at Google. According to the report, “the relationship was mutually beneficial. Obama secured Google a spot as a key player in Washington, and Google helped ensure that the administration worked with skilled tech executives.”

Google was also actively involved in supporting Barack Obama’s reelection campaign in 2012 and gamed the system against Republican presidential primary candidates.

Google escalated its election interference efforts in 2016. As the sun set on Barack Obama’s presidency, Google began backing Hillary Clinton, concealing search results related to her indictment and criminal activity. Unlike Yahoo! and Bing, which auto-completed searches about Clinton’s crimes and indictment, Google suggested phrases like “Hillary Clinton Indiana” or “Hillary Clinton crime reform.” This trend continued when Clinton was up against then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, with Google employing similar tactics to suppress searches for “crooked Hillary,” Trump’s nickname for his Democratic rival.

According to the report, when searching terms like “abortion,” “campaign finance reform,” “global warming,” and “Iraq war,” Google users were nearly 40 percent more likely to encounter information with a left-wing bias as opposed to a conservative bias during the 2016 election cycle. Citing research by psychologist Dr. Robert Epstein, the report indicates that Google’s covert support for the Clinton campaign could have influenced “at least 2.5 million votes” in her favor.

One of the more bizarre revelations in the report was that Google paid to shuttle Hispanic voters to polling stations in pivotal battleground and swing states. In private email threads, Google executives expressed optimism that a surge in Hispanic voter turnout would give Clinton an edge over Trump, though their efforts, of course, ultimately failed.

In the lead-up to the 2018 midterm elections, Google tried some new tactics, among which was using their search engine to link the search term “California Republicans” with Nazism. The Big Tech giant presented Nazi ideology as a related search when users typed in “California Republicans,” while a search for “Nazism” would direct users to information about the California Republican Party. During the same election cycle, 95 percent of political search results would yield information with a left-wing bias, and only 5 percent would present conservative-leaning results, according to the report.

Much of Google’s interference in the 2020 election is already in the public domain, thanks to the infamous Project Veritas investigation in which Google’s Responsible Innovation Director Jen Gennai admitted to an undercover journalist that the company was in the process of “preventing the next Trump situation.”

“In many of the cases listed above, Google either admitted that it had made errors or attempted to downplay studies and reports critical of its actions,” the report concludes. “But neither defense explains why Google’s election interference always seems to go in one direction: favoring the radical left at the expense of the right.”

The report, which runs 10,000 words across 19 pages and covers events up to the present day, deserves to be read in full.

So, what can Americans do about Google’s blatant subversion of the democratic process?

First, they can limit, as much as possible, their use of Google and Google-related products, including the company’s search engine, Chrome browser, Gmail services, Google Maps, YouTube, Google Drive, Google Photos, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Translate, Google Play Store, etc. A company with a shrinking customer base and abandoned products is a company that is forced to reevaluate its mission. There are many high-quality alternatives to each of the services listed above.

Second, they can contact their representatives Washington, D.C. and urge Congress to investigate Google for violating Americans’ constitutional rights, collaborating with the government to infringe upon freedom of speech, intervening in elections through undisclosed in-kind contributions, and deceiving users by breaching the company’s own terms of service.

Third, they can spread the word. An act as simple as sharing this article can go a long way toward informing Americans who have been led to believe that Google is a neutral and unbiased platform.

After all, a free country begins with free minds.

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Kurt Mahlburg is a contributor at Intellectual Takeout.
Photo “Google Search” by Firmbee.com

 

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