{"id":59542,"date":"2016-06-12T17:38:30","date_gmt":"2016-06-12T15:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.arabtelegraph.com\/?p=59542"},"modified":"2016-06-12T17:38:30","modified_gmt":"2016-06-12T15:38:30","slug":"google-accused-of-biased-search-results-favouring-clinton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arabtelegraph.com\/?p=59542","title":{"rendered":"Google accused of \u2018biased\u2019 search results favouring Clinton"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s the kind of headline that grabs attention in this highly intense U.S. election season:?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the question SourceFed, a YouTube channel owned by the same parent company as Discovery Channel, asked in a seven-minute video that has right-wing news outlets accusing that the world\u2019s most powerful technology company of secretly supporting the presumptive Democratic nominee.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the video, SourceFed host Matt Lieberman accuses Google of altering search results to play down stories or pages about Hillary Clinton\u2019s legal troubles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is an inherent trust that when you Google something, you\u2019re seeing the actual factual answer to your query or question based at least in part on the results of what other people are searching for,\u201d Mr. Lieberman says in the video. The video has received almost 220,000 views at the time of publication. \u201cIn the case of Hillary Clinton, we know for a fact that is not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

The suspicion that Google is up to something nefarious centres on Alphabet Inc. executive chairman Eric Schmidt\u2019s long association with Democratic politics and the Obama administration. Alphabet is the parent company of Google.<\/p>\n

Several reports have said that a Schmidt-backed startup, the Groundworks, provides data analytics and engineering talent to the Clinton campaign. Although Google says Mr. Schmidt has not had an active role at the company since 2011, that hasn\u2019t stopped critics such as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange from claiming \u201cGoogle is directly engaged with Hillary Clinton\u2019s campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coming after Facebook Inc. was accused of being biased against conservative news topics and sources, supporters of Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, gleefully claimed the SourceFed video was the smoking gun that proves Silicon Valley is against them.<\/p>\n

But it is less than clear that the evidence presented in the SourceFed video actually proves that accusation against Google.<\/p>\n

The controversy surrounds the Google search bar\u2019s autocomplete function, which helpfully suggests words to cut down on time: When a user types familiar phrases like \u201cThe Globe and\u201d, Google will fill in the \u201cMail\u201d.<\/p>\n

SourceFed demonstrates that typing \u201cHillary Clinton cri\u201d does not autocomplete to crime, even though there are many news stories suggesting the former Secretary of State\u2019s e-mail scandal may have a criminal dimension. By point of contrast, \u201cDonald Trump rac\u201d does autocomplete to \u201cracist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, rival search engine Bing, which has about 10 per cent of the U.S. search market, autocompletes the word criminal. Is it a conspiracy? Google vehemently denies it.<\/p>\n

In a written statement, the company said: \u201cGoogle autocomplete does not favour any candidate or cause. Claims to the contrary simply misunderstand how autocomplete works. Our autocomplete algorithm will not show a predicted query that is offensive or disparaging when displayed in conjunction with a person\u2019s name. More generally, our autocomplete predictions are produced based on a number of factors including the popularity of search terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

At issue is the words \u201ccrime\u201d or \u201ccriminal\u201d following a person\u2019s name. Those are two of the \u201coffensive\u201d terms Google screens out, in the belief that it\u2019s not up to Google\u2019s autocomplete function to suggest someone has been convicted.<\/p>\n

If a user searches for \u201cAl Capone cri\u201d or infamous Canadian child molester \u201cGordon Stuckless cri\u201d in Google, it will not autocomplete to crime or criminal following the person\u2019s name. It\u2019s unclear why Google\u2019s autocomplete does not filter out \u201cracist,\u201d although it will filter out \u201cthe N-word\u201d and certain other slurs if they come after a person\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

SourceFed did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Search engine optimization marketing expert about why this policy exists, but in part he thinks it boils down to Google\u2019s trouble\u2019s with the EU authorities: \u201cGoogle has been of over its search query suggestions, particularly overseas. Negative suggestions open them up to defamation cases.\u201d<\/p>\n

That \u201ccriminal\u201d restriction may not have been widely known. Search engine expert Danny Sullivan of\u00a0<\/a> that as recently as five years ago, Google\u2019s autocomplete censoring focused on five areas:<\/p>\n