rt.com/usa/459233-google-liberal-bias-news-study/ archive.fo/1Xh2T > When it comes to political bias online, left-leaning Facebook and Twitter have been the most common punching bags, but a new study confirms that Google’s search algorithms are also skewed in favor of liberal viewpoints.
>Researchers from Northwestern University performed an “algorithm audit” of the ‘Google Top Stories’ box, which is a major driver of traffic to news publishers and therefore prime online real estate. They examined results for nearly 200 searches relating to news events for one month in late 2017 and found “a left-leaning ideological skew.”
>The researchers did allow some leeway for Google to defend itself, however, saying that while the left-leaning bias was detected, it is possible that the dominance of particular sources is a result of "successful strategic behavior" by those sources to achieve "algorithmic recognizability" — but whatever the reason, liberal sources still far eclipsed conservatives ones.
>CNN, perhaps the outlet most-reviled by conservatives, was Google’s overall favorite source. Of the 6,302 articles appearing on Google's ‘top stories’ during the month in focus, more than 10 percent came from CNN. The New York Times and Washington Post were up next, garnering 6.5 and 5.6 percent of the results, respectively.
>Fox News, the most mainstream right-wing outlet, was the source for only 3 percent of stories appearing in the top box. Then it was back to liberal outlets, with the BBC, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Politico and ABC News filling out the rest of the top 10. Overall, 62.4 percent of the most common sources were left-leaning, while only 11.3 perfect were said to be right-leaning.
>Perhaps an even more damning indictment than Google’s detected liberal bias, however, is that nearly all (86 percent) of the stories promoted by the search giant came from just 20 sources across the entire internet, which doesn’t exactly display much of a commitment to diversity of information and opinion.
>Publishers selected for the top box receive "a significant boost in traffic" which demonstrates Google's ability to “pick winners and losers” based on where they decide to direct most of our attention. Such power and bias in favor of major sources could also be linked to the decline of local news, which is competing in an unfair online environment, the study suggested.
>The detection of Google’s left-leaning preferences will hardly come as a shock to conservatives, who have been complaining in recent years that powerful online platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Google have all shown clear bias against conservative perspectives. The grumbling has not been without cause, either.
>Most recently, Facebook slapped a number of popular conservative commentators with permanent lifetime bans — and Twitter has been caught out ‘shadowbanning’ Republicans and is accused of being quicker to suspend or ban conservative users over liberals for alleged rule-breaking.
>Yet, while Facebook and Twitter have engaged in what many analysts and critics are calling direct political censorship, the story is more complicated when it comes to Google.
>The researchers found that it’s not simply whether a source is left or right-leaning that determines whether it goes into the top stories box. Writing for the Columbia Journalism Review, one of the study authors acknowledged that there appears to be more news produced on the left overall, something which also affects the results. Even so, Google’s curation algorithms were still found to be “slightly magnifying” the already left-leaning skew in online news production.
Christopher Rogers
Whatever happened to the times when France or some other European country would sue the living fuck out of the Big Tech and make them pay billions in anti-trust law suits?
Nicholas Campbell
You're just now figuring this out? Christ.
Christian Gutierrez
Now it is entering into the public debate.
Brandon King
this. normies are getting sick of this shit en masse
Brayden Gray
I switched to Yandex a while back. It's good.
Noah Kelly
bing and yandex are both good. bing is especially good for looking up alternative news.
lmao, conservashits keep getting their ass kicked in every platform. Pathetic.
Dominic Martin
this isn't about political ideology. This is about social media companies using their platforms to conduct psy ops and push humanity in the direction where they maintain control and get even more power. The tech executives should be executed for treason.
Jordan Ross
It might have something to do with conservative news sites peddling B's and also with Google's algorithm being associative meaning it favors popularity
Jaxson Harris
>It might have something to do with conservative news sites peddling B's and also with Google's algorithm being associative meaning it favors popularity Nah it has to do with the fact Google is a terrorist organization.
Connor Thomas
Every person has a profile and the search results, their order and recommendations are created around that, sometimes to push some "things" (there was an article about this).
Cameron Adams
Wow no shit
Ryder Jackson
> "successful strategic behavior" by those sources to achieve "algorithmic recognizability"
Like nepotism and ethnic collectivism? Oy vey! This is antisemitic.
