US President Donald Trump has accused Google's search engine of promoting negative news articles and hiding "fair media" coverage of him, vowing to address the situation without providing evidence or giving details of what action he might take.

Key points: Mr Trump tweeted that Google search results were "rigged" against him

Mr Trump tweeted that Google search results were "rigged" against him Google denied the claim that its search engine was biased

Google denied the claim that its search engine was biased His economic adviser said the White House was "taking a look" at Google

Mr Trump's attack against the tech giant follows a string of grievances against internet companies, including Twitter and Facebook, which he has accused of silencing conservative voices.

He has also previously hit out at Amazon, which he says hurts small businesses and benefits from a favourable deal with the US Postal Service.

Mr Trump said in several tweets on Tuesday that Google search results for "Trump News" were "rigged" against him.

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"I think Google is really taking advantage of our people," Mr Trump said in the Oval Office.

"Google, and Twitter and Facebook, they are really treading on very, very troubled territory, and they have to be careful. It's not fair to large portions of the population."

Google denied any political bias, saying in a statement that its search engine is "not used to set a political agenda and we don't bias our results toward any political ideology".

Facebook declined to comment. Twitter did not comment when asked for a response. In congressional testimony, both companies have denied engaging in partisan censorship.

Mr Trump frequently berates news outlets for what he perceives as unfair coverage.

Neither he nor the White House detailed how they would probe Google or what legal justification they would use.

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Mr Trump's economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, later told reporters that the White House was "taking a look" at Google, saying the administration would do "some investigation and some analysis", without providing further details.

Earlier this summer, the new Republican chair of the Federal Trade Commission Joseph Simons said the agency would keep a close eye on big tech companies that dominate the internet.

In a previous investigation, the FTC decided that Google was likely justified in developing a search function that harmed other companies.

Congressional sources cautioned that it may be difficult for Mr Trump to find a way to probe Google about news search results, and that Congress was unlikely to pass any applicable laws.

Google said its search engine is "not used to set a political agenda". ( AP: Marcio Jose Sanchez, file )

The Federal Communications Commission ceded jurisdiction over regulating online communications when it repealed its net neutrality rules.

US member of Congress Ted Lieu, a Democrat, said in a tweet directed at Mr Trump that such restrictions on Google would violate the US Constitution.

"If government tried to dictate the free speech algorithms of private companies, courts would strike it down in a nanosecond," he said.

Reuters