Brad Parscale

Opinion contributor

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.

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If something vaguely conservative and intellectually stimulating manages to get past Google’s content gatekeepers, they just remove it. YouTube, which is owned by Google, routinely demonetizes, restricts and censors conservative content. One target of YouTube was Dennis Prager’s PragerU, which had 40 of its videos restricted. Prager sued the social media video giant this year following these unfounded restrictions. YouTube has also been known for banning pro-life videos.

Google’s eager adoption of the role of censor should come as little surprise. Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., has a demonstrated track record of combining the role of Democrat activist with his job.

Google and YouTube shape our online reality

WikiLeaks emails revealed that Schmidt worked directly with the Clinton campaign in 2016 and was instrumental in forming “The Groundwork,” an online startup company created to help Clinton win the election. He was also seen wearing a “staff” badge at the Clinton election night party.

While President Barack Obama was in office, Google kept a cozy relationship with the White House. Google representatives attended White House meetings more than once a week during the first seven years of Obama’s presidency, and almost 250 individuals left government service to work for Google or vice versa while Obama was in office. The Obama administration may also have squashed an antitrust investigation into the company.

Of course, the problem with Google extends well beyond Eric Schmidt. As the saga of James Damore showed, the political bias at Google is institutional.

Google’s nefarious activities should concern not just conservatives and Republicans, but every American who values free speech and a truly free and open internet.

Google’s broad and pervasive role in the lives of almost every American today cannot be overstated. More than 90 percent of all online searches are conducted through Google or YouTube. The media giant’s video-sharing site has 1 billion active users a month, many of whom go there to learn and share conservative ideas only to find their quest for knowledge subverted by faceless ideologues.

Google is clearly manipulating and controlling the political narrative in favor of Democrats and the left, and silencing conservatives and Republicans. A company with such power and influence cannot simply be allowed to play the biased gatekeeper of political discourse.

Americans who believe in a truly open society and internet won’t stand for it any longer.

Brad Parscale is the campaign manager for Donald J. Trump for President. Follow him on Twitter: @parscale