New Study On Google Shows The Power Of Search Engine Bias

BAILEY T. STEEN | SUNDAY, MAY 1, 2018

WASHINGTON remain obsessed with the 2016 presidential election, pinning the rise of President Donald Trump on proven DNC corruption and incomplete accusations of âRussian interferenceâ, however thereâs new scientific research from the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology (AIBRT) that suggests techno-monopolies like Google hold the influence to sway voters to their preferred candidates.
According to Dr. Robert Epstein, the studyâs lead author, search engines such as Google, Inc. have the ability to significantly manipulate the voting patterns of their own users âwithout peopleâs awareness and without leaving a paper trail for authorities to followâ, the liberal psychologist told Breitbart News.
This is the latest investigation Dr. Epstein has made into the Search Engine Manipulation Effect (SEME), the behavioural phenomenon where the political beliefs of unsuspecting users, across multiple nations, can be altered between 20 to 80 percent based on how positive or negative candidates are shown to be on the first two pages of results or the suggested searches bar.
Directly from the study:
âThe voting preferences of participants who saw no search suggestions shifted toward the favored candidate by 37.1%. The voting preferences of participants in the search suggestion groups who saw only positive search suggestions shifted similarly (35.6%).
However, the voting preferences of participants who saw three positive search suggestions and one negative search suggestion barely shifted (1.8%); this occurred because the negative search suggestion attracted more than 40% of the clicks (negativity bias).
In other words, a single negative search suggestion can impact opinions dramatically. Participants who were shown four negative suggestions (and no positives) shifted away from the candidate shown in the search bar (-43.4%).â
While the study contains room for error, using the medium sample size of 600 âdiverseâ would-be-voters across 48 states, the researchers present the influential problem with centralised search engines: giving the impression users are able to conduct their own research, without overseeing curation, when all the reassurances we have are the word of executives from these multi-national corporations â who just so happen to have a vested interest in particular candidates such as former presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
In 2016, SourceFed published a video claiming that Google were biased in favour of Secretary Clinton â the candidate that earned campaign donations from Google ($174,000 in July 2016) and from a start-up company lead by former Executive Chairman of Google Eric Schmidt ($177,000 in 2015).
In the video, narrator Matt Lieberman explained how searching for Clinton generated only positive suggestions such as âHillary Clinton is winningâ or âHillary Clinton Indiaâ â which wasnât the case for her opponents Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.

When compared to the results on Yahoo and Bing, all candidates showed a mix of both positive and negative results, depending on what users are searching. Once these results were put through Google Trends, the site showed negative searches such as âHillary Clinton indictmentâ were eight times more popular than what Googleâs homepage claimed were popular.

âThe intention is clear,â Lieberman told his viewers. âGoogle is burying potential searches for terms that could have hurt Hillary Clinton in the primary elections over the past several months by manipulating recommendations on their site.â
Once the video gained 26 million views, Dr. Epstein and his associated decided to investigate these claims â using proxy servers, the Tor network, often used to access the dark web, and the removal of caches and cookies to remove any personal bias and recommendations Google may construct for every individual account. While Google, of course, denied any love for Clinton influencing their results, Epsteinâs research suggests the opposite.
âGoogle Autocomplete does not favor any candidate or cause,â a spokesperson told The Washington Times. âOur Autocomplete algorithm will not show a predicted query that is offensive or disparaging when displayed in conjunction with a personâs name.â
This is especially rich given the popular search terms for Clintonâs opponents included âBernie Sanders socialistâ, maligning one with the likes of Stalin, ChĂĄvez and Mao, and the other branded âDonald Trump racistâ.

This refutes claims Google arenât playing favourites when they editorialise disparaging searches deemed offensive â and the researchers agree.
Epstein concluded, whether users go through obsessive privacy measures or not, âit is somewhat difficult to get the Google search bar to suggest negative searches related to Mrs. Clintonâ compared to her 2016 rivals.
In his article for Sputnik:
âBing and Yahoo seem to be showing us what people are actually searching for; Google is showing us something else â but what, and for what purpose?â
This is not the first time the most powerful search engine in the world has come under fire for perceived political bias. Outside the failings of their subsidiary YouTube, known for scandals such as the #YouTubePurge and inconsistent transparency policies, Googleâs status as the non-partisan public utility demands questioning. While company engages in flawed fact-checking that only targets centre-right outlines, continue to hire partisan organisations like the South Poverty Law Centre and the government to police the ill-defined âhate speechâ and âfake newsâ, users should instead demand measures that hold the platformâs neutrality accountable. Only then can we do our own research on the platform opposed to our interest â without the power change fact to fiction before our very eyes.

Thanks for reading!
Bailey T. Steen is a journalist, editor, artist and film critic based in Victoria, Australia, but is also Putinâs Puppet⢠on occasion.
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Cheers, darlings!! đ