According to a report by a conservative think tank, Google has ‘interfered’ in US elections ’41 times’ since 2008 – something the search engine giant strongly denies.
The Media Research Center study also claims that Google’s new AI tool Gemini “will not answer negative questions” about Joe Biden.
“MRC researchers have found that Google has interfered in elections 41 times over the past 16 years,” Dan Schneider, vice president of MRC Free Speech America, and editor Gabriela Pariseau wrote in the report’s summary.
“From the mouths of Google executives, the tech giant let slip what was never intended to be made public: that Google is using its ‘great power, resources and reach’ to advance its left-wing values,” the authors added .
Google has strongly denied the claims in the report, calling them “baseless, inaccurate complaints that have been debunked by third parties,” including “many that failed in court.”
Media Research Center study claims Google’s new AI tool Gemini ‘won’t answer negative questions’ about Joe Biden
Dr. Epstein, quoted in the report, said the US company’s search algorithm “probably shifted at least 2.6 million votes to Hillary Clinton” in 2016.
The report cited research from AllSides researcher Dr. Robert Epstein, who found that “Google’s results and reminders to vote favored Democrats and shifted the 2020 election results by at least 6 million votes.”
Dr. Epstein added that the US company’s search algorithm “probably shifted at least 2.6 million votes to Hillary Clinton” in 2016.
“Google’s outsized influence over information technology, politics, and U.S. elections became apparent in 2008,” the authors summarize.
“After failing to prevent then-presidential candidate Donald Trump from being inaugurated after the 2016 election, Google has since made it clear to every discerning observer that it interfered in the U.S. election, and will keep doing.’
“Its impact has increased dramatically, making it increasingly damaging to democracy,” they added.
“In all cases, Google harmed the candidates – regardless of party – who threatened the left-wing candidate of their choice.”
MRC Free Speech America, a division of the conservative Media Research Center, also blasted Google’s AI service Gemini for allegedly “refusing to answer questions that were harmful” to Biden.
It said the engine also appeared to favor left-leaning Democratic candidates. This included Barack Obama over John McCain in 2008, and Obama over Mitt Romney in 2012.
The site is also accused of using its algorithm to exclude autofill results that might have been harmful to Hillary Clinton in 2016, and “not doing the same for then-candidates Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders.”
Google condemned the report as inaccurate.
Google has strongly denied the report’s claims, calling them “baseless, inaccurate complaints that have been debunked by third parties,” including “many that failed in court.”
The site is also accused of using its algorithm to exclude autofill results that might have been harmful to Hillary Clinton in 2016, and “not doing the same for then-candidates Donald Trump or Bernie Sanders.”
“There is absolutely nothing new here – just a recycled list of baseless, inaccurate complaints that have been debunked by third parties and many that have been dismissed in court,” the search engine said.
“Politicians on the left also have a long history of making similar claims.
‘We have a clear business incentive to let everyone use our products, so we don’t want to make them biased or inaccurate and have taken safeguards to ensure this.
“Numerous conservatives have been extremely successful in using our platforms to spread their message to broad audiences.”
Google said third parties, including The Economist, Stanford and Ahrefs, conducted similar studies and “found no evidence to support claims of political bias.”
“Our algorithms look at features and qualities of sites, not at individual pages and never at political ideology,” a Google spokesperson said.
“Reputable third parties looked at our results and found no evidence to support allegations of bias.”
They added that Dr. Epstein “has continued to make highly misleading claims that have been widely debunked, including due to the omission of data that would have changed his findings.”
Regarding the Gemini claims, they said: “As we announced last December, out of an abundance of caution, we are limiting the types of election-related questions to which Gemini will return answers.
“These restrictions include questions relating to candidates/political parties and notable office holders. For these questions, Gemini’s response will direct the user to Google Search for the latest information.”