Last night, President Donald Trump tweeted in his signature style accusing Google of manipulating 2.6 to 16 million votes in Hilary Clinton’s favor in the 2016 Presidential Elections. However, Google swiftly responded by denying all allegations made by Trump.
Wow, Report Just Out! Google manipulated from 2.6 million to 16 million votes for Hillary Clinton in 2016 Election! This was put out by a Clinton supporter, not a Trump Supporter! Google should be sued. My victory was even bigger than thought! @JudicialWatch
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2019
In a statement, the company said it never altered search results to manipulate political opinions:
We have never re-ranked or altered search results to manipulate political sentiment. Our goal is to always provide people with access to high-quality, relevant information for their queries, without regard to political viewpoint.
The “just out” report Trump’s referring to is in fact a study published in 2017 by psychologist Robert Epstein. In a testimony before Senate Judiciary Committee in July, Epstein said Google’s search algorithm has some bias and it “likely impacted undecided voters in a way that gave at least 2.6 million votes to Hillary Clinton.”
However, this study was based on search results of just 95 people, 21 of whom were undecided, over the course of 25 days. Clinton took to Twitter to point this out while taking the opportunity to take a swipe at Trump.
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The debunked study you’re referring to was based on 21 undecided voters. For context that’s about half the number of people associated with your campaign who have been indicted. https://t.co/0zHnWvGjSv
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 19, 2019
Google also commented on Epstein’s report saying the researcher’s claim has been debunked since it was made in 2016. Trump, in a now-deleted tweet, said: “We are watching Google very closely.”
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