A quick Google search of recent headlines about Google are not the kind of public relations the company needs.
President Trump went after the tech giant this week with a series of tweets complaining about a perceived bias against him with the type of articles brought up in search results. It is a similar complaint to the ones he’s leveled against other Big Tech companies.
“I think that Google and Facebook and Twitter… treat conservatives and Republicans very unfairly,” the president tweeted at one point. “I think it’s a very serious problem because they’re really trying to silence a very large part of this country, and those people don’t want to be silenced.
“It’s not right. It’s not fair. It may not be legal, but we’ll see. We just want fairness.”
It seems one topic everyone on both the right and the left can agree on is the need for greater accountability from Big Tech, as well as more legislative oversight. This week senior leadership from Google, Twitter and Facebook are facing an interrogation during congressional hearings in Washington.
“Up until now most criticism of the tech giants has come from the left, aggrieved at the ease with which Russians appeared to influence the election via bots and fake accounts spreading divisive propaganda,” writes The Guardian‘s David Taylor. “Additionally they have been accused of toxifying public debate, exploiting people’s data and building monopolies that are distorting the US economy.
“But now the tech giants face a whole new political threat. And this time there is a growing volume of voices on the right from senior Republicans who are incensed about perceived bias against conservatives.”
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