as Google and Facebook are biased against
conservative viewpoints, both internally and on
their public services. Republican legislators have
convened several hearings on the subject.
But experts say there’s little evidence to support
such claims, which the companies themselves
have long denied.
“Trump wants to remind (big tech) that he is
watching them,” said Frank Pasquale, a law
professor at the University of Maryland and an
expert on algorithms and society. He pointed
out that some also claim that Google-owned
YouTube funnels viewers to far-right videos and
conspiracy theories.
All these allegations, Pasquale said, “assume
that neutrality or objectivity means having half
negative and half positive results.” But if more
negative pages about a person or topic exist
on the web, he said, a search result will likely
produce more negative results.
Cernekee’s personal situation may also be
more complex than it first appeared. On Aug.
5, the conservative publication The Daily Caller
published posts Cernekee made on Google
message boards in which he called for a fund to
help white nationalist Richard Spencer after he
was punched by a protester.
Cernekee told The Associated Press in a
statement that he has “always supported free
speech and opposed white nationalism,” and
that he spoke in opposition to other employees
who supported Spencer getting punched.
GOOGLE AND CHINA
Trump also indirectly referred on Aug. 6 to
another unfounded claim gaining currency
among conservatives, which is that Google is