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Trump is right: More than Facebook & Twitter, Google threatens democracy, online freedom

President Donald Trump says Google and other tech companies are "treading on very, very troubled territory." (Aug. 28) AP

(Photo: Don Ryan/AP)

Americans must be wary of powerful institutions that seek to control what we see and hear.

As the internet has become an increasingly central part of modern life, Big Tech giants such as Facebook, Twitter and Google have increasingly sought to become the gatekeepers of the internet and political discourse. Without any sort of democratic mandate, these companies have appointed themselves the arbiters of acceptable thought, discussion and searches online.

These companies’ pervasive command of the internet — and blatant desire to control how we interact with it — is a direct threat to a free society. And arguably the worst offender is Google.

Google claims to value free expression and a free and open internet, but there is overwhelming evidence that the Big Tech giant wants the internet to be free and open only to political and social ideas of which it approves.

“Google & others are suppressing voices of conservatives and hiding information and news that is good. They are controlling what we can & cannot see. This is a very serious situation-will be addressed!” President Trump tweeted last month.

Google has directly targeted Republicans 

The president is absolutely right.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Google was accused of manipulating search results to favor Hillary Clinton’s candidacy. Also, research at Harvard University found that Google’s search rankings are not objective, and in 2017, the company was fined billions of dollars by the European Union for manipulating search results.

Google also maintains at least nine shadowy blacklists that affect what the public sees when using its search engine.

When it’s not manipulating the internet to prevent users from viewing right-wing content, Google is directly attacking that content. A report by The Daily Caller News Foundation revealed that Google’s fact-checking service “fact-checked” only conservative news websites, and that in many cases, these fact-checks were outright wrong. What does it say about the fact-checker when its fact-checking is biased and incorrect?

Sometimes, the tech giant just attacks conservatives directly. In one infamous example, a Google search result listed “Nazism” as an official ideology of the California GOP. North Carolina Sen. Trudy Wade, a Republican, was shocked to discover that the top search result for her name returned a photo labeling her as a bigot

The similarity of results weakens the bias charge against Google. If Google actually were out to get Trump, wouldn’t they submerge his original tweets and other positive links? Are all three search engines conspiring against the president? Or more likely, are all three reflecting some underlying fact about the internet, namely that the established media tend to be skeptical about the administration?

That may reflect media bias, but so what? The Constitution guarantees freedom of the press, not fairness by the press. Our basic law protects freedom from government action, not least by the president. Some courts have ruled that Google’s search results are also protected by the First Amendment. Even if Google biased their search algorithm, the company has no obligation, legal or otherwise, to provide search results favoring or disfavoring the president.

But manipulating searches to harm Trump would threaten Google's core obligation to its shareholders to maximize the value of its stock. Google is very profitable in part because of the accuracy of its results. There is also potential competition. If Google did bias its results, a large number of the 60 million people who voted for Trump could try Bing or DuckDuckGo, both of which one suspects would welcome the new users. Google's managers have profound business reasons to avoid political crusades. 

Not for the first time, Trump’s actions should trouble real conservatives. He seems to be fostering a conspiracy theory about Google — "they are controlling what we can & cannot see" — to divert attention from his political difficulties over the past week. But a place where the leader fosters conspiracy theories for political gain is called a banana republic, not a constitutional government.

But we are not a banana republic. We still have a government where the president and other elected officials are limited in their powers to control "the freedom of speech and of the press." Trump's barely concealed threat to "address" Google’s alleged errors does more damage to American liberty than anything the company might have done. We can hope this was an empty threat. But we can also hope that one day we have a president who recognizes that freedom of speech and the press is a big part of what has made America great.

John Samples is a vice president at the Cato Institute. He founded and directs Cato’s Center for Representative Government, which studies the First Amendment, government institutional failure, and public opinion

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