Donald Trump has responded to SourceFed’s allegation that Google manipulated its search recommendations to avoid directing users to negative results about Hillary Clinton.
In a comment to Business Insider, the presumptive Republican nominee said the following:
If this is true, it is a disgrace that Google would do that. Very, very dishonest.
They should let it float and allow people [to] see how crooked she really is.
In the video, which has accumulated more than 260,000 views on YouTube since publication, SourceFed’s Matt Lieberman demonstrated that Google’s search recommendations for Hillary Clinton did not include commonly searched-for combinations such as “Hillary Clinton crime” and “Hillary Clinton indictment.”
By comparison, search recommendations on Bing and Yahoo did show these results.
The video went on to draw attention to the links between Google, its CEO Eric Schmidt, Hillary Clinton, and the Obama administration. Schmidt was a founding investor in “The Groundwork,” an organization that aims to harness the technological capabilities of Silicon Valley to put Clinton in the White House. Google’s head of public policy, meanwhile, Johanna Shelton, has made more than 125 visits to the White House while Obama has been in office.
In short, the links between Google and the Democrats run deep. SourceFed’s video followed claims from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange that the search engine was “directly engaged” in the Clinton campaign.
Nevertheless, Google has issued a strong denial of claims that it manipulated search recommendations on behalf of Clinton. Earlier today, a spokesperson told Breitbart:
Google 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’s name. More generally, our autocomplete predictions are produced based on a number of factors including the popularity of search terms.
Facebook, another tech giant, found itself embroiled in scandal last month after allegations that it manipulated its “Trending News” feature to downplay stories of interest to conservatives. The company was forced to conduct a highly-publicized meeting with conservative pundits to fend off claims of liberal bias. Twitter, too, is facing complaints of anti-conservative biases. In an election cycle where Silicon Valley has faced unprecedented scrutiny over their well-known progressive values, tech companies are clearly finding it hard to convince the public and the media that their services are still politically neutral.
You can follow Allum Bokhari on Twitter, add him on Facebook. Email tips and suggestions to abokhari@breitbart.com.
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