Google's headaches may have gotten worse

At the beginning of 2017, when Donald Trump The all-new White House has put in place a travel ban temporarily banning immigrants and visitors from seven Muslim-majority countries, causing a public outcry – and a conversation between an unspecified number of employees at Google. according to The Wall Street JournalSome Googlers suggested linking with pro-immigration organizations when a user searches for terms such as "Muslim" or "Islam" to try to counter "Islamophobic, algorithm-biased results" by email examined by Newspaper. Google insisted that the emails were a brainstorming session and that none of the ideas were implemented, claiming in a statement "never manipulated its search results or modified its products to promote a Political ideology peculiar to the current campaign, not during the 2016 elections, and not after President Trump's decree on immigration. But when it comes to the right, the NewspaperThe revelations are the newest addition to the growing stack of evidence of Google's betrayal.

Feel the blood in the water, Fox News Tucker Carlson jumped on the story, publishing the documents to his own public, including, presumably, an audience at the White House. "Google employees have been discussing the company's search engine corruption to push propaganda on hundreds of millions of unsuspecting users," he added. tweeted Thursday night, "all to resist President Trump". And this new cycle of indignation follows a video published by Breitbart showing a private Google listening session just after the 2016 elections. "As an immigrant and refugee, I certainly find that this election is deeply offensive and I know that many of you do it too, "Google said. Sergey Brin says in the video, in which he and Larry Page seem to have been shaken by Trump's victory. "I think it's a very stressful time. It conflicts with many of our values. It's a good time to think about that.

So far, Google has been lucky – the Breitbart report surfaced as a devastating hurricane collided with the Carolinas and, like my colleague Tina Nguyen stresses, has been neglected by most right outings. And the NewspaperThe story of Brett Kavanaugh, Trump Supreme Court candidate accused of sexual assault. But the tide could just as quickly turn against the company. Before he was distracted by Kavanaugh's scrum, the net of reports caught the attention of the president. "Google's search results for" Trump News "only show the display / notification of Fake News Media. In other words, they did it, for me as for others, so that almost all stories and news are bad, "he added. tweeted last month, citing an unfounded assertion made by a right opinion news website. "96% of the results on" Trump News "come from the left-wing media, which is very dangerous." He continued his rampage against the technology giant in another tweet, warning that Google practices "will be addressed."

Google has weathered the fallout of the presidential blitzkrieg pretty well – despite being a national economic adviser Larry Kudlow This week he told the press that the White House "would look" at Google's regulation, but his comment seems to have been largely edentulous. But society has done little to please legislators since, neglecting to send either Page or C.E.O. Sundar pichai to testify before a congressional committee next door Sheryl Sandberg and Jack Dorsey earlier this month. (Google had offered to send its legal director, but the committee wanted a figurehead of the company.) "Sheryl and Jack, I'm glad you're here," G.O.P. senator Richard Burr said in his opening remarks. "I'm disappointed that Google has not decided to send the good executive to what I really expect to be a fruitful discussion." Even Democrats are not satisfied. "I am deeply disappointed that Google, one of the most influential digital platforms in the world, has chosen not to send its own leaders to engage this committee" Mark Warner said in his opening remarks, before making a list of how Google's services had been used to encourage foreign interference. It's only a matter of time before Trump rejoins flogging. And when he does, he will have a lot of ammo.