Trump aide says president weighing regulations on Google search engine that he considers 'rigged'

Show Caption Hide Caption Trump says tech companies 'better be careful' President Donald Trump says Google and other tech companies are "treading on very, very troubled territory." (Aug. 28)

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump is considering new regulations on Google's search engine to address his concern that it turns up too many stories that are critical of him, his top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, said Tuesday.

Kudlow, the director of Trump’s National Economic Council, told reporters that the administration is “taking a look” at federal regulations for Google.

He spoke after Trump, in a tweet, accused Google's search engine of being "rigged." The president also expressed frustration on Twitter that when Americans type “Trump News” into the search engine, it generates mostly negative news about him while conservative media is "shut out."

Trump later elaborated on those comments while speaking in the Oval Office, saying that Google was "taking advantage" of people. He also attacked Twitter and Facebook as unfair but did not offer specifics about his concerns.

"I think that Google and Twitter and Facebook, they are really treading on very, very troubled territory and they have to be careful," Trump said.

Google search results for “Trump News” shows only the viewing/reporting of Fake New Media. In other words, they have it RIGGED, for me & others, so that almost all stories & news is BAD. Fake CNN is prominent. Republican/Conservative & Fair Media is shut out. Illegal? 96% of... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 28, 2018

Facebook and Twitter declined to comment.

Google said in a statement that its search engine is not designed with the intent of promoting a political ideology but is instead aimed at generating "high-quality content" in response to user queries.

Computer algorithms determine what search results people are shown, drawing from a large number of complex and largely secret set of signals, such as where that person is located, what that person has searched for in the past and what that person has clicked on.

Google keeps those signals under wraps to keep everyone, from big brands to bad actors, from gaming the system. That does not stop people from trying. An entire cottage industry called search engine optimization helps websites get better rankings in search results to drive more traffic.

Google has been dinged for favoring its own products in search results and is contemplating launching a search engine in China that would censor results at the request of Beijing.

"Search is not used to set a political agenda, and we don't bias our results toward any political ideology," said Riva Sciuto, a Google spokeswoman. "We never rank search results to manipulate political sentiment."

A Google search Tuesday of Hillary Clinton, Trump's Democratic opponent in 2016, produced a mix of unflattering stories, many about the use of her private email server.

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Trump and Kudlow raised the prospect of regulating the company days before executives from the tech industry are set to answer questions on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee will question Facebook's chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and possibly a representative from Google during a Sept. 5 in a hearing focused on Russian interference in U.S. elections. Separately, Dorsey will face questions from the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

First Amendment concerns

There are a growing number of proposals to regulate big tech making the rounds in Washington, among them a proposal to audit algorithms used by tech companies to determine what content users see, but there's not much the White House could do without the cooperation of Congress.

The prospect of regulating Google’s search algorithms drew quick push back from some Democrats on Capitol Hill.

“You should read the First Amendment,” Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., tweeted to Trump. “Google has the right to, for example, prioritize cute cat videos over weird Alex Jones rants.

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

White House aides did not respond to questions about Trump's use of Google or what prompted his tweet on Tuesday. Trump's tweet followed a report in a conservative media outlet over the weekend that suggested most Google search results for Trump pull up "liberal media outlets."

The headline of that PJ Media story alleged that "96 percent" of results on Google are anti-Trump, the same percentage that Trump cited in his tweet.

Trump’s tweets followed Fox Business host Lou Dobbs' interview Monday with Trump boosters Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson, known as Diamond and Silk, who have complained of censorship by tech companies.

Paula Bolyard, author of the PJ Media Post, said her methodology was not scientific. She also said she's not in favor of regulating tech companies. "Government almost always makes things worse," she tweeted. "Biased social media outlets" can run their companies "however they want."

Facebook, Google and Twitter were crucial tools in Trump's ascension to the Oval Office. His tweets Tuesday marked a dramatic change in tone from last month when the president described Google as "one of our great companies."

The president's evolution on the issue appeared to begin weeks ago. Trump accused social media companies of “silencing millions of people” and earlier this month he said they discriminated against Republicans and conservatives.

Conservative claims that the liberal leaders and staffers of technology companies treat them unfairly have been simmering for years and have gained more steam heading into the November midterm elections. There's little evidence to back up those claims, but companies have responded by scheduling a series of meetings with conservative leaders to reassure them.

"Trump is doing this because he gets to define an enemy and churn up reaction. People retweet him, comment on him, make fun of him, and all sorts of commenters like me talk about the tweets," said Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor media studies at the University of Virginia and the author of books on Facebook and Google. "So Trump gets to own the day."

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Google, Facebook and Twitter have long cast themselves as neutral purveyors of information, attempting to strike a balance between users freely expressing themselves and keeping hate, abuse and misinformation off their platforms. But the opaque process that decides what content gets top billing routinely stirs controversy.

During the 2016 presidential election, conservatives accused Facebook of censoring right-leaning voices. In May, Facebook announced it had brought on advisers to probe whether it suppresses conservative voices.

In July, Trump accused Twitter of silencing conservative voices. Dorsey said his company’s employees are “left-leaning” but said political ideology does not determine what appears on Twitter. The attacks from Trump and conservatives escalated after Apple, Google and Facebook removed content from Alex Jones, a far-right conspiracy theorist.

The criticism could further undermine the public's confidence in the nation's largest tech companies, which are already under siege from revelations that Russian and Iranian operatives exploited their platforms to spread propaganda during and after the 2016 election.

Contributing: Christal Hayes