Trump Unloads on 'Rigged' Google, Threatens Action
President Donald Trump was awake early Tuesday morning and once again took aim at the perceived bias of Silicon Valley with a pair of tweets aimed at Google.
The search-engine giant had been the subject of an investigation by one conservative website that found a majority of news results related to Trump were from “liberal” media sites.
That designation was itself lifted from a “media bias chart” compiled by journalist Sharyl Attkisson. Major media properties including CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post appear on the left-leaning side of that chart.
Apparently referencing that PJ Media report, the president began by tweeting that Google’s behavior could be against the law.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1034371152204967936
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1034373707047882759
He claimed the tech giant had “RIGGED” the system against him and his supporters while artificially amplifying the voices of his detractors in the media.
“Google search results for ‘Trump News’ shows only the viewing/reporting of Fake New Media,” he wrote. “In other words, they have it RIGGED, for me & others, so that almost all stories & news is BAD.”
While keeping the focus on Google, Trump denounced “Fake CNN” as a “prominent” news outlet within the search engine’s results.
“Republican/Conservative & Fair Media is shut out,” he wrote. “Illegal?”
As his statement ran into a second tweet, Trump hinted that his administration could take action against the company, though he did not elaborate on what crime he believes Google might have committed.
“96% of…….results on “Trump News” are from National Left-Wing Media, very dangerous,” the president tweeted at about 5:30 a.m. Eastern time. “Google & others are suppressing voices of Conservatives and hiding information and news that is good.”
Trump concluded by insinuating that Google’s influence is so great that it can effectively silence some voices on the internet.
“They are controlling what we can & cannot see,” he wrote. “This is a very serious situation — will be addressed!”
In a statement later Tuesday morning, the president’s economic adviser confirmed his team would be determining whether the government should step in to regulate what users find when they search for content online using Google.
“We’ll let you know,” Larry Kudlow said. “We’re taking a look at it.”
Earlier this month, Trump tweeted similar criticism of the nation’s leading social media firms, which have been accused of exhibiting political bias in removing or restricting access to certain content.
“If you are weeding out Fake News, there is nothing so Fake as CNN & MSNBC, & yet I do not ask that their sick behavior be removed,” Trump wrote.
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