By Eric King-
Google engineers have been accused of discussing on email plans to change algorithms to disfavour conservative publications, after Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential elections
The Daily Caller claimed both their outlet and Breitbart were singled out as sites to potentially bury after some Google employees suggested may not have deserved a prime spot on the search engine’s result.
According to the claims, circulating in media circles, liberal employees shared emails that conspired to reduce the search result visibility irrespective of whether articles contained useful information that would usually be featured prominently.
The publication claims to have viewed internal emails between Google employees that label the news outlet an ‘opinion blog,’ which they say is a false statement. ‘This was an election of false equivalencies, and Google, sadly, had a hand in it,’ engineer Scott Byer wrote, according to DCNF.
‘How many times did you see the Election now card with items from opinion blogs (Breitbart, Daily Caller) elevated next to legitimate news organizations? That’s something that can and should be fixed.’
‘I think we have a responsibility to expose the quality and truthfulness of sources – because not doing so hides real information under loud noises,’ Byer is said to have continued. ‘Beyond that, let’s concentrate on teaching critical thinking. A little bit of that would go a long way. Let’s make sure that we reverse things in four years – demographics will be on our side.’
A spokesperson for google said in a statement:
‘Google has never manipulated its search results or modified any of its products to promote a particular political ideology. Our processes and policies do not allow for any manipulation of search results to promote political ideologies.’