Google’s Manipulation

A famous research psychologist Dr. Robert Epstein has brought attention to Google’s alarming manipulation of newsfeeds, search results, and YouTube suggestions. Despite the focus on Twitter & Facebook’s censorship and biases, Google, the worst offender among Big Tech giants, has managed to evade scrutiny, but now it seems the tech giant has set its sights on our children.

Google has been accused of manipulating search results in a number of ways, including:

· Ranking websites that pay for advertising higher in search results.

· Personalizing search results based on a user's search history and other personal information.

· Showing sponsored results at the top of search results pages. Sponsored results are paid for by advertisers, and they are often designed to look like organic search results. In 2019, the European Union fined Google 4.34 billion Euros for manipulating search results in favour of its own shopping comparison service. This was the largest antitrust fine ever imposed in the European Union.

In a recent blog post Dr. Epstein has shared his latest research, shedding light on Google’s ability to shape public opinion and influence elections to align with its liberal corporate worldview.

He said that, Google possesses the capability to sway minds and even shift election results. In the 2020 election alone, he estimates that Google manipulated search results to shift approximately 6 million votes in favour of Joe Biden. Through biased algorithms, Google skewed search results to present positive links for Biden and negative links for Trump. Additionally, the tech giant utilized its home page to promote Get Out The Vote messages targeted primarily at Democrat voters.

Google has denied any wrongdoing, and said that its search results are based on a number of factors, including the relevance of the content, the popularity of the website, and the quality of the links to the website. However, the company has also said that it is constantly experimenting with new ways to improve its search results, and it is possible that some of these experiments could be seen as manipulative.

Ultimately, it is up to the user to decide whether or not they believe that Google is manipulating search results. There is no easy answer, and there is evidence to support both sides of the argument. However, it is important to be aware of the potential for manipulation when using Google search.

S Mohini Ratna, Editor, VARINDIA