GOOGLE is promoting the idea that ethnic minorities CANNOT be racist toward white people.

The tech giant's search results appear to foreground left-leaning answers to this highly controversial question, rather than giving a view which reflects the fact there is debate over this contentious issue.

2 It is not clear whether this is conscious decision from Google, or whether it is a result of the algorithms it uses to compile search results Credit: Reuters

America is currently locked in a passionate argument about whether some supporters of groups like Black Lives Matter are actually racist towards white people, with people from different sides of the political spectrum offering varying views.

However, Google's search facility offers a rather one-sided solution to this thorny and divisive question.

We searched Google using several terms similar to the phrase: "Can you be racist towards white people?"

Google showed us an explanation which appears to be taken from the Huffington Post.

"Any person can be racist, regardless of their own race," Google's search rankings explained.

"WRONG no they can't racism requires power and prejudice. white people have power to oppress black people because they control the system and ecnomic [sic.] structure in society."

2 Here's what happens if you ask Google 'is it possible to be racist to a white person?'

We also asked if a black person be racist against a white person and were told: "The usage of the word racist relative to a hate speech by blacks on blacks or whites is incorrect. A subjugated group cannot be racist – they can only be prejudicial."

When we asked Google the question "can you be racist towards a white person?" it showed a comment from a blogger called Slapdash Mom.

She wrote: "Prejudice against white folks is not 'racism', it's 'prejudice' or 'discrimination'.

"Racism is something else entirely…it's a system that acts against people of colour in this country (established through slavery and colonisation)…so their [sic.] is a difference."

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The concept that ethnic minorities can be bigoted towards white people is called "reverse racism".

Ask Google what this phrase means and it will offer you an explanation that appears to lay the blame for hatred at the door of a "dominant racial group".

"Reverse racism is a phenomenon in which discrimination, sometimes officially sanctioned, against a dominant or formerly dominant racial or other group representative of the majority in a particular society takes place, for a variety of reasons, often initially as an attempt at redressing past wrongs," the explanation which appears on Google's search results said.

Silicon Valley has come under fire recently for appearing to promote a left-wing agenda. Facebook, in particular, drew particular ire over claims it had allegedly "suppressed Conservative news".

Google recently left Donald Trump off a page which appeared to people who searched for "presidential candidate". It blamed a "bug" for the omission.

A Google spokeswomen said: "Google does not endorse or select responses manually. This content comes from the third-party sites that we do not control. The feature is an automatic and algorithmic match to the search query.

"We welcome feedback, as we’re always working to improve our algorithms. Users and content owners can give feedback on incorrect information through the 'Feedback' button at the bottom right of the WebAnswer."