The Media Research Center claims that Google is engaging in its usual electoral pranks. According to an MRC analysis, Joe Biden’s campaign website ranks highest when a candidate’s name is searched for along with the phrase “presidential race 2024,” whereas Donald Trump’s website does not appear on the first page.
As the 2024 presidential election intensifies, concerns about how tech companies are influencing public opinion and information availability are growing, according to the MRC. The prominence of campaign websites for presidential candidates may be affected by what the MRC claims is evidence of bias in Google’s search results, which was discovered during a recent investigation.
Days before tonight’s much-awaited presidential debate between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden, the MRC conducted research that showed significant variations in Google’s presentation of search results for different candidates. Researchers found that when a candidate’s name was searched for along with the phrase “presidential race 2024,” President Biden’s campaign website appeared first, but former President Trump’s website was noticeably absent from the first page of results.
There have been claims of election meddling as a result of this disparity. The president of MRC, Brent Bozell, declared, “Google is openly meddling in the election of 2024.” According to the organization’s findings, pro-life candidates appear to be treated less favorably in search results, indicating that the problem goes beyond just these two candidates.
There were two sets of search queries used in the investigation. While the second set looked at results for party-specific searches, the first set concentrated on specific candidates. Researchers found notable differences in the rankings of various candidates’ websites in both scenarios.
The MRC was similarly concerned with the results of the party-specific searches. When searching for “Republican party presidential campaign websites,” Trump’s website ranked 39th out of 40 times, whereas Biden’s website was prominently highlighted at the top of a similar search for Democratic candidates.
In the digital age, the significance of search result rankings cannot be overstated. Since Google dominates the global search engine market with nearly a 92 percent share, the exposure of content on its platform can significantly impact public perception.
According to research by search engine optimization specialist Brian Dean, the top result in Google searches receives 27.6% of all clicks, with lower-ranked results seeing a sharp decline in click-through rates. Based on this research, it appears that a candidate’s online visibility and the reach of their campaign could be significantly affected by where their campaign website appears in search results.
It’s important to remember that Google has previously come under fire for possible political meddling. Since 2008, the MRC has recorded 41 alleged cases of Google meddling in elections; the frequency and severity of these incidents have allegedly increased in recent years. Search result manipulation is nothing new for Google. In the months preceding the 2020 election, Breitbart News extensively exposed Google’s persecution of Breitbart itself. In many cases, not even searches using the exact title would yield links to Breitbart News.
Google, on the other hand, has continuously insisted that its search algorithms are designed to give users the most relevant and helpful content possible, free from political bias. Nonetheless, concerns regarding the authority and accountability of tech companies in democratic processes persist due to the opaque nature of these algorithms and their potential to significantly affect the spread of information.
