Missouri attorney general investigating Google for alleged bias against conservative speech in search algorithm
Republican Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced an investigation into allegations against Google that the search engine’s algorithm is biased, censoring conservative speech to influence the election.
‘I will not allow Google to interfere in the most consequential election in our nation’s history.’
Bailey made the announcement from his official social media account on the X platform Friday.
“I am launching an investigation into Google – the biggest search engine in America – for censoring conservative speech during the most consequential election in our nation’s history. Google is waging war on the democratic process. It’s time to fight back,” Bailey said.
Google has been accused of biased search results after the failed assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump. The claims led Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas to announce a congressional investigation into the company in July.
Trump has said that, if he were re-elected, he would order the Department of Justice to pursue criminal charges against Google on the basis that its search engine presents negative stories about him and positive stories about Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris.
“We have reason to believe that Google is manipulating their search results to de-emphasize information about the Trump campaign prior to Election Day,” Bailey said to Fox Business. “I will not allow Google to interfere in the most consequential election in our nation’s history.”
The company responded in a statement denying the claims and asserting that its search results are nonpartisan according to independent studies.
“Search serves all our users, and our business rests on showing useful information to everyone — no matter what their political beliefs are,” the statement read.
Researcher Robert Epstein has previously reported evidence he’s documented to show that Google’s search engine is biased in favor of Democrats. Epstein, the former editor of Psychology Today, described the “search engine manipulation effect” to Blaze News:
During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Epstein found that Google’s autocomplete consistently favored positive suggestions for Hillary Clinton while allowing both positive and negative suggestions for Donald Trump. His studies showed that users are much more likely to click on negative suggestions, meaning that Google’s skewed suggestions had a profound effect on how voters viewed the candidates. The reality is, Google’s bias may not have been enough to get Clinton elected, but it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying.
“We won’t allow Big Tech to interfere with this election,” said Bailey in another tweet.
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