Search Neutrality

As President Donald Trump goes to war against Silicon Valley technology firms over what he believes is a left-wing bias against conservatives, a right-wing group has launched a lawsuit targeting this region’s tech giants and accusing them of a conspiracy.

Google does feature work by traditional media organizations more than insurgent conservative outlets. Of course, Google’s ability to divine “quality” as distinct from “popularity” is limited. Search-ranking technology relies on the implicit votes of readers, with all the human biases that come bundled with them. Google, for its part, categorically rejected the claim that it tinkered with search results for political reasons. “When users type queries into the Google Search bar, our goal is to make sure they receive the most relevant answers in a matter of seconds.

President Donald Trump shared a video that showed Google advertising former President Barack Obama's State of the Union speeches but not his, escalating his battle with the tech giant over what he claims is bias against conservatives. President Trump shared the video with the caption "#StopTheBias." “For years, Google promoted President Obama’s State of the Union on its homepage. When President Trump took office, Google stopped," the video reads, followed by a 25-second montage showing Google's home page the night of each State of the Union speech dating back to 2012

President Donald Trump escalated a brewing battle with various technology companies, issuing a warning to Facebook and Twitter after blasting Google earlier in the day. "Google and Twitter and Facebook, they’re really treading on very, very troubled territory," President Trump cautioned during an event at the White House. "If you look at what is going on with Twitter and if you look at what’s going on in Facebook, they better be careful because you can’t do that to people," he added. The president did not provide specifics to clarify his remarks.

The Trump administration is “taking a look” at whether Google and its search engine should be regulated by the government, said Larry Kudlow, President Trump’s economic adviser. “We’ll let you know,” Kudlow said. “We’re taking a look at it.” The announcement puts the search giant squarely in the White House’s crosshairs amid wider allegations against the tech industry that it systematically discriminates against conservatives on social media and other platforms.

Google responded to President Donald Trump, denying that its algorithms favor liberal media outlets over right-wing ones.

Ever since its founding 20 years ago in a Silicon Valley garage, Google has proudly and often ostentatiously held itself up as the architect of a new model for corporate virtue. Google, they said, would always put long-term values over short-term financial gain. “Making the world a better place” would be a primary business goal, and Google’s ethical compass could be summed up in a simple and celebrated motto: “Don’t be evil.” Now, Google appears to be changing its mind.

Hundreds of Google employees, upset at the company’s decision to secretly build a censored version of its search engine for China, have signed a letter demanding more transparency to understand the ethical consequences of their work.

Google is planning to launch a censored version of its search engine in China that will blacklist websites and search terms about human rights, democracy, religion, and peaceful protest. The project – code-named Dragonfly – has been underway since spring of last year, and accelerated following a December 2017 meeting between Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai and a top Chinese government official. Teams of programmers and engineers at Google have created a custom Android app, different versions of which have been named “Maotai” and “Longfei.” The app has already been demonstrated to the Chinese gov

Sen. Mark Warner's office has laid out 20 different paths to address problems posed by Big Tech platforms — ranging from putting a price on individual users' data to funding media literacy programs. The proposal is a window t0 the options available to US policymakers concerned about disinformation and privacy. Enacting any of these plans is a long shot in the near-term, but a shift in party control of Congress come November could give them more momentum.