Google Search Functions Heavily Favor Harris Campaign: Study
Once again, the CEOs at the helm of the world’s largest search engine, Google, who lean heavily to the left, appear to be manipulating search results to favor the Democratic candidate for president, according to a report on Thursday.
A recent study by the Media Research Center (MRC) found that Google ranked Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign website more favorably in its search engine results compared to former President Trump’s official site, as reported by Fox News.
“Google is attempting to ‘stack the deck’ in Kamala Harris’ favor,” MRC founder Brent Bozell stated to Fox News Digital.
“Google’s search engine promotes left-leaning media articles that support Kamala Harris while criticizing Donald Trump,” he continued. “Don’t rely on Google searches.”
Researchers at MRC Free Speech America analyzed search results on Sept. 6 for two separate terms: “Donald Trump presidential race 2024” and “Kamala Harris presidential race 2024.”
Their goal was to evaluate where each candidate’s campaign website appeared on Google’s search results, only to discover that Harris’ site had an advantage, Fox reported.
According to MRC, this isn’t the first time Google has shown bias.
“In previous instances, Google has buried the campaign websites of Republican candidates. Now, the tech giant appears to inflate search results with articles from left-leaning legacy media outlets that are often critical of Republicans and either neutral or favorable toward Democrats,” Gabriela Pariseau, MRC Free Speech America’s associate editor, wrote in a summary of their findings.
“Readers are forced to wade through biased news before they can even access the organic results of their searches, including a candidate’s own website,” Pariseau added.
When MRC researchers entered “Donald Trump presidential race 2024” into Google, Trump’s official campaign site appeared in the sixth position.
“But before finding Trump’s site, users encounter seven articles from left-wing outlets like The New York Times, Politico, and The Washington Post under the ‘Top Stories’ section,” Pariseau noted.
“Once researchers scrolled to the actual search results, Google displayed a link to an Economist article titled ‘Donald Trump v Kamala Harris: who’s ahead in the polls?’ along with links to CNN’s election page and NBC’s live election updates,” she continued, pointing out that MRC NewsBusters Executive Editor Tim Graham identified a “blatant leftist bias” in many of the articles promoted by Google.
Conversely, when MRC Free Speech America conducted a search for “Kamala Harris presidential race 2024,” her campaign website appeared third in the organic search results. The articles displayed were predominantly from left-leaning sources, Fox added.
“Most of the articles ranked above Harris’s website referenced historian Allan Lichtman’s prediction that Harris would win the 2024 election,” Pariseau wrote.
“This clear leftist bias is especially alarming given that, according to a November 2023 Pew Research survey, an increasing number of Americans are relying on search engines for their news,” Pariseau went on. “The survey showed that 15 percent of U.S. adults prefer to get their news from search engines, up from 13 percent in 2022 and 11 percent in 2021.”
In August, several Republican leaders demanded explanations from Google after reports surfaced that Harris’ campaign was manipulating search results.
Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas) “demanded answers from Google CEO Sundar Pichai concerning the Harris campaign’s use of Google search ads to alter headlines in a deliberate attempt to mislead voters by falsely suggesting endorsements from major news outlets,” as stated in a press release.
“Google has a troubling history of implicit bias and election interference that consistently benefits one political party,” Gooden remarked. “If Google is unwilling or unable to take basic steps to protect the integrity of our elections, I will collaborate with my colleagues to use every available tool to ensure accountability.”
Earlier this month, the Trump campaign criticized Harris for her “close ties with a prominent attorney representing Google in an upcoming federal antitrust case,” according to the New York Post, noting that the former president views this as an undeniable “conflict of interest.”
The Trump campaign made this statement shortly after the Post disclosed Harris’ connection to the prestigious law firm Paul Weiss and its top attorney, Karen Dunn, a major figure on Google’s legal defense team in the Biden-Harris Justice Department’s case against the company’s digital advertising business.