The Media Research Center claims that Google is pulling off its usual electoral pranks. According to MRC research, Donald Trump’s campaign website does not show up on the first page when searching for a candidate’s name along with the phrase “presidential race 2024.” In contrast, Joe Biden’s campaign website ranks first.
According to the MRC, concerns about how tech companies influence public opinion and information availability are intensifying as the 2024 presidential election intensifies. MRC claims to have found evidence of bias in Google’s search results through a recent analysis, which may have an effect on how visible presidential candidates’ campaign websites are.
Days before tonight’s much-awaited presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, the MRC performed research that showed significant variations in Google’s presentation of search results for different candidates. Researchers looked up a candidate’s name together with the phrase “presidential race 2024” and discovered that the website of Vice President Biden’s campaign came up first, while the website of former President Trump was noticeably missing from the first page of results.
This disparity has led to accusations of election meddling. The president of MRC, Brent Bozell, declared, “Google is openly meddling in the election of 2024.” According to the organization’s findings, pro-life candidates may face more discrimination in search results than just these two candidates.
There were two sets of search queries used in the investigation. While the second set looked at results for party-specific searches, the first set concentrated on specific candidates. In both situations, researchers found notable differences in the rankings of various candidates’ websites.
The MRC was similarly concerned with the results of the party-specific searches. When someone searched for “republican party presidential campaign websites,” Trump’s campaign website came up 39th out of 40 times. In contrast, a similar search for Democratic candidates prominently displayed Biden’s website at the top.
In the digital age, search result ranks are extremely important. Given that Google dominates the global search engine market with a nearly 92 percent market share, information visibility on its platform has a substantial impact on public perception and campaign resource accessibility.
According to research by search engine optimization specialist Brian Dean, the top result in Google searches obtains 27.6% of all clicks, with lower-ranked results seeing a sharp decline in click-through rates. This research suggests that the placement of a candidate’s campaign website in search results could significantly impact their online visibility and campaign reach.
It’s important to remember that Google has previously come under fire for possible political meddling. Since 2008, the MRC has recorded 41 alleged cases of Google meddling in elections; the frequency and severity of these incidents have allegedly increased in recent years. Search result manipulation is nothing new for Google. In the months preceding the 2020 election, Breitbart News extensively exposed Google’s persecution of Breitbart itself. In many cases, not even searches using the exact title would yield links to Breitbart News.
Conversely, Google consistently asserts that its search algorithms aim to provide users with the most relevant and beneficial content, devoid of any political bias. However, the opaque nature of these algorithms and their potential to significantly influence the dissemination of information continue to raise concerns about the authority and accountability of tech businesses in democratic processes.
