Trump adviser Kevin Hassett defends possible regulation of Google

Erin Kelly | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – One of President Donald Trump's top economic advisers defended the president’s idea of regulating Google Wednesday, saying it’s part of the administration’s job to review whether new policies are needed for tools such as Internet searches.

"Well, first, there are independent agencies that look into this all the time," said Kevin Hassett, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, during an interview on Fox Business Network. "And it's our job at the White House, really, to be looking at the 21st century economy, not the 20th century economy, right? Like, so we can't be just really good at buggy whips, we've got to think about what's going on right now."

The proposal – mentioned Tuesday by Trump's top economic adviser – has received backlash from some lawmakers who say they have First Amendment concerns about regulating algorithms for tech companies.

Hassett said Internet search engines, such as Google's, are "a really, really interesting thing because they have these search algorithms, basically care more if somebody important links to a page than if somebody unimportant links to a page."

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He said that "mainstream media" news about Trump may automatically get more hits in a search than other sources or "it could be that it's something else," Hassett said on FoX's "Mornings with Maria" show. Trump and some of his Republican allies in Congress have charged that social media companies are biased against conservatives.

"And the question is, that in a 21st century economy, you know, what is the right of the American government in this space? What should we be looking at? And I think that it's right for us to think about those things," Hassett said.

Hassett's comments came a day after Larry Kudlow, the president's top economic adviser, told reporters that the administration is "taking a look" at regulating Google. So far, no one at the White House has given any details about what those regulations might look like.

Kudlow spoke after Trump tweeted accusations that Google's search engine is "rigged" against him.

Google search results for “Trump News” shows only the viewing/reporting of Fake News 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

Google said in a statement Tuesday that its search engine is not designed to promote any particular political ideology but tries to generate "high-quality content."

"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."



